£90.4 million investment in Coventry as WMCA approves funding towards new railway station and Friargate development

Coventry is to get more than £90 million towards two landmark city centre schemes from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).The authority has agreed to pump £51 million into Phase 1 of the Friargate development scheme next door to Coventry railway station.The WMCA has also agreed to invest a further £39.4 million towards the £82 million cost of redeveloping the station.The funding was agreed at a meeting of the WMCA board in Birmingham.The scheme will see new infrastructure including a second station building, a 644 space multi-storey car park – 350 more spaces than the current car park – and a new footbridge connecting all platforms.There will be a new platform to enable more frequent services between Coventry and Nuneaton, a six-bay bus interchange with provision for rail replacement services, and highway improvements to deal with traffic around the station and bus interchange.Completion is scheduled for 2020 and the new-look station will be able to handle more train services.This will include greater frequencies for Canley and Tile Hill stations as part of an increase in the number of services between Coventry and Birmingham from seven to nine trains an hour.It will also enable additional services to be introduced between Coventry and Nuneaton.Longer term it will potentially provide more direct services to the north east, including Leicester and Nottingham, and serve as a major gateway from Coventry to HS2.