Boost for battle to get trains every hour between Shropshire and Mid Wales

Welsh Assembly chiefs had been anticipating 400 replies during the three week consultation into the need for an hourly rail service from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury, calling at Welshpool and Newtown.

But Robert Robinson, Welshpool Town Council clerk and secretary of the Shrewsbury-Aberystwyth Railway Liaison Committee, told members of the town council at a meeting last night that he was confident there would be an announcement next month.

Mr Robinson told the council at its monthly meeting: "I met Welsh Assembly Transport Minster Edwina Hart's officers in Shrewsbury and the survey is now complete.

"Mrs Hart was expecting 400 replies to it and that would have gone down as a good sample for this purpose. We had 6,500, with 4,000 completed by hand and a further 2,500 online, which is fantastic.

"I can't say too much at the moment, but what I can say is that on single commuter lines in the rush hours, if the surveys are to be believed, usage would increase by 370 per cent if the hourly service was introduced.

"This is overwhelming evidence that we need this service. I am now going to meet Mrs Hart's office again in a week's time and then I will meet her on November 19 and she will be looking to make an announcement on the future of the service later that month.

"My thanks go to Welshpool town councillors Estelle Blievas, Hazel Evans, John Morgan and Malcolm Douglass who actually went onto the trains themselves and asked passengers to fill in forms."

The project could play a key part in bringing a major improvement to Wales's primary east to west transport corridor, campaigners have claimed.