A NEW train station in Wellington is moving along the tracks with a planning application set to be submitted within days.

A dedicated team is already working on the project and the proposals will be lodged with Somerset West and Taunton Council in December.

If the local authority grants permission, the new station would be built on a site adjacent to the Longforth Farm estate.

Construction work could begin as early as 2024 and the first trains could potentially stop at Wellington the following year.

Taunton Deane MP Rebecca Pow has just chaired the latest meeting of the steering group looking at bringing the station to the town, along with a further station in Cullompton.

Ms Pow said: "Things are progressing well.

"Great Western Railway have set up a dedicated team to work on the project and the formal planning application will be going into Somerset West and Taunton Council in December.

"This region is working on the most new stations of anywhere in the country and a survey was done recently amongst the people of Wellington and it showed that the number one priority that people wanted was to get a rail station.

"We’ve made the business case, but it really is important that people want to support this as well.

"What I’m going to do next is that I’ll be requesting a meeting with the new Rail Minister, Huw Merriman, to make sure that he’s fully aware of what we need and that we keep our whole project on track.

"We’ve had money from the Restoring Railways fund as a priority and we need to just keep this going so that we can actually start to deliver the project potentially by the end of 2024/early 2025.”

Network Rail hopes to have developed a detailed design for the proposed station and a full business case to submit to the Department for Transport before the end of December next year.

Stations in Wellington and Cullompton would serve the Great Western mainline from London Paddington to Penzance and would sit either side of Tiverton Parkway Station.

The old Wellington Station was one of 2,000 stations nationwide closed under the 'Beeching Axe' on October 5, 1964.

 

READ MORE: Latest plans for Wellington Station.