Campaign to reopen station gets a boost

Campaigners battling to get a Mid Wales railway station reopened claim they have taken a "significant step forward" in their fight.

Members of the Carno Station Action Group want to see Carno Station near Newtown reopened.

They are celebrating a major landmark in their campaign after the Welsh Assembly agreed to carry out a business case for its reopening.

Carno Station was axed under the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, but a community action group has been campaigning to get it reinstated.

The closed station is on the Cambrian Line which links Shrewsbury to the Mid Wales coast, between Caersws and Machynlleth stations.

Action group chairman Tony Burton said: "We believe this is a really significant step in our campaign to reopen our station.

"We have been assured that the Carno transport appraisal we presented last year, which set out the business case for the reopening of Carno Station, will be completed as part of the study of the Cambrian Line for which funding has now been allocated."

He said campaigners had met with senior officers from the Welsh Assembly and TraCC, the Mid Wales local transport consortium.

Mr Burton said: "We are very pleased to learn that the business case will be completed by February, in time for a decision to be made on the level of priority to be given to reopening our station."