THE restoration of the Oswestry to Gobowen railway line could cost up to £14.6 million pound.

North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan says she has seen documents from the Restoring Your Railways fund – which was handling the application prior to Rishi Sunak’s announcement that funds would be used from the cancelled HS2 work - which suggest reintroducing services to Oswestry with a stop at the Orthopaedic Hospital would incur a capital expense of between £5.3 million to £14.6 million.

It would have yearly operating costs of £196,000.

Mrs Morgan said the documents support the case for reopening the station and that when it comes to economic considerations, the scheme’s strategic outline business case scored highly with ‘Very High and Financially Positive’ value for money.

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Mrs Morgan added that she has also received a letter from rail minister Huw Merriman committing to ensuring the work will be funded.

She said that in the letter, Mr Merriman said he was ‘delighted to be able to confirm that the project will be funded to delivery’ with Network Rail to lead the next stage of work alongside CHR.

It comes after Rob Williams, chairman of Cambrian Heritage Railways (CHR) – who have put together plans for the potential project – told the Advertizer that he had also been given assurances over funding.

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Mrs Morgan continued: “It is fantastic to see the Department for Transport commit to getting Oswestry back on the mainline, and that the Government has finally realised how much value the project will bring.

“All the hard work done by Roger Date and the team at Cambrian Heritage Railways is to thank for this glowing review.

“The case for reopening the line is overwhelming and the bid submitted last year made that clear.

“We need to go full steam ahead in getting Oswestry reconnected to the mainline.

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“The economic benefits to the vitality of the town would be huge, helping people get into town, out to work, and creating enormous numbers of opportunities for our young people.”

The next step for the project is to engage with potential rail operators and put together a full business case.

The scheme will be funded by the Restoring Your Railways Fund after an outline business case was submitted last year.