Plans to reopen railway station move a step closer
REOPENING a former railway station in a Nuneaton community has moved a step closer to getting back on track.
Campaigns to reopen the former Stockingford station, which was located by the Whittleford Road overbridge, have been ongoing for years after it closed in March 1968.
It has been talked about in future plans for the rail network across Nuneaton, but has now taken a giant leap towards becoming a reality.
The Telegraph can reveal that Warwickshire County Council has made a bid for a slice of cash from the ‘Restoring Your Railway Fund,’ which was set up by the government to try and bring back some of the railways stations that were lost in the Beeching cuts in the 1960s.
The initial bid would be for funding to develop the proposals to reopen the station, which would provide better rail links for those who live in the Stockingford and Galley Common area.
If this is successful, then another bid would be made to help pay towards the cost of reopening the station.
Weight has been added to the bid by Nuneaton’s MP Marcus Jones, who said he is pushing ministers in Whitehall to allow the bid to progress further.
“I am fully behind this,” he said. “This is an area where many people do not have access to their own transport and a station would provide them with decent links to Birmingham, where there are quite often better paid jobs.
“I am speaking with ministers on an ongoing basis, to try and impress the situation locally and how this would help.”
A spokesperson for Warwickshire County Council said: “We have been very happy to be working closely with Marcus Jones MP to submit a bid to the Department for Transport (DFT) for funding to carry out a piece of work to further develop the station proposals at Stockingford/galley Common.
“Since submitting this bid, we have received feedback from DFT and have been asked to provide further information to them, which we are currently progressing.”
As well as the MP and Shire Hall, Green party councillor Keith Kondakor has also long campaigned for the station to be-reopened.
The county council has plans for six new railway stations in a masterplan for the local rail network.
As we reported in our newsletter, Warwickshire Draft Rail Strategy 2019-2034 looks to transform rail travel for years to come to coincide with the arrival of HS2.
The multi-million project would include six new stations being built over the next two decades.