Plans to offer matchday train services to and from the Ricoh Arena for League One side Coventry City FC and Premiership rugby side Wasps supporters "may have been derailed after two trial runs flopped financially," according to Simon Gilbert of the COVENTRY TELEGRAPH.
It is understood London Midland and Wasps suffered losses of around £30,000 ($43,400) after jointly spending a total of about £40,000 ($58,000) "on special charter train services for the matches with Harlequins and Leicester Tigers."
The train for the Harlequins game in February is estimated to have lost about £18,000 ($26,000) as just 650 people paid £2.40 ($3.40) "for return tickets on the six carriage charter train."
The matchday special for Wasps’ victory over Leicester on Saturday "was better used with an estimated 2,000 people taking advantage of the service." But that "was still nowhere near enough to cover the running costs" -- leaving the rugby club and the train operators roughly £15,000 ($21,700) in the red on that day.
Having suffered significant losses from the two trial services, "the prospect of further matchday or event day charter trains being run appears bleak."
That means supporters "will once again be left unable" to use the £3.4M ($4.9M) Ricoh Arena railway station to travel to and from matches as the station will close for an hour after every major event due to safety concerns (COVENTRY TELEGRAPH, 3/16).
