In 1839, an independent company the
Warwick and Leamington Union Railway, under the chairmanship of
Joseph Frederick Ledsam, submitted plans for a new line connecting Leamington with the
London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) at Coventry; the plans were approved by the '''''' (
5 & 6 Vict. c. lxxxi). The following year, before the line was built, the Warwick and Leamington Union Railway was purchased by the L&BR, which itself became part of the
London and North Western Railway (LNWR) three years later. The line was opened on 9 December 1844 from Coventry via to the original terminus, at what was then known as
Leamington station but later became known (after numerous name changes) as
Warwick (Milverton) station. The Milverton terminus was inconveniently located a mile from the centre of Leamington, as it had been intended as a compromise to serve both Leamington and
Warwick, located midway between the two towns; this was considered unsatisfactory and so, in 1851, the line was extended closer to Leamington town centre and joined end-on to the LNWR's
branch line to Rugby. A new, more centrally located station,
Leamington Spa (Avenue), was opened on this extension in 1854; this was alongside the rival
Great Western Railway (GWR)
station at Leamington. Originally built as a single track line, the route between Leamington and Kenilworth was widened to double track in 1884 and the stations at Milverton and Kenilworth were rebuilt; however, the section from Kenilworth Junction to Gibbet Hill Junction, just south of Coventry, remained single track. At the same time, a new cut-off line known as the
Berkswell Loop was opened from Kenilworth to on the Coventry-Birmingham line. This line avoided Coventry and allowed the LNWR to introduce a direct Leamington to Birmingham service.
Kenilworth station re-opening In 2013, funding was approved to rebuild and reopen
Kenilworth railway station. The line was also scheduled to be re-doubled from Milverton Junction to Kenilworth and electrified as part of the
Electric Spine project, although these plans were put on hold by
Network Rail in 2016 and no date has since been given for completion of this work. Construction of the new station at Kenilworth began in July 2016. The opening date was originally meant to be August 2017, although this was repeatedly postponed. It finally opened on 30 April 2018. The new hourly service operated by
West Midlands Trains was initially a shuttle between Leamington Spa and Coventry, calling at Kenilworth. Since May 2019, this service has been extended to . In April 2022, the bridge over Rugby Road in Leamington Spa was replaced. The then-current bridge had a 20 mph speed limit due to its poor condition. ==The line today==