OSWESTRY’S MP has called on the Government to “get the wheels turning” on restoring the town’s railway link to the main line at Gobowen.
Oswestry, the largest town in north Shropshire, is without a railway station and residents have to travel to Gobowen for services to Wrexham and Chester to the north and Shrewsbury in the opposite direction.
This, says North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan, puts commuters at the mercy of potentially unreliable bus services at evening and weekend times.
She is now following up her earlier calls to Mark Harper, the Secretary of State for Transport, to move ahead with planning for the scheme, which would reconnect Oswestry to the railway line for the first time since the Beeching cuts.
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She said: “There are few towns the size of Oswestry with such poor public transport links.
“Despite the obvious rail heritage you see around town, Oswestry Railway Station has not been open since 1966.
“The plans have been with the Government for almost a year now.
“It’s time to get the wheels turning and make the project happen and I will fight tooth and nail to make that happen.
“I’ve already been in touch with the Secretary of State for Transport and Transport for Wales over making the plans viable.
“I will be campaigning to get residents involved and show our decision-makers how important a link to the mainline would be for Oswestrians.”
A strategic outline business case was submitted to the Government in September 2022 but nearly a year later and no decision has been made.
Despite previously promising a decision by spring 2023, Rail Minister Huw Merriman has failed to provide any positive update on progress to repeat requests from Helen Morgan.
Mrs Morgan is now planning a roundtable event in Parliament to highlight to politicians in Westminster how much worse public transport is in rural areas like north Shropshire.
She intends to connect local campaigners with Government and rail representatives as she pushes the campaign to reinstate the rail link forward.
Her call comes at a time when Shropshire Council’s Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan survey has potentially identified the dormant track space to be incorporated into any future decisions.
The first set of feedback results was released last week.
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