The residents of St Athan – all few thousand of you – here’s some great news. Progress has been made towards the town getting a train station for the first time in six decades.
The south Wales village has been without steam or electric engines since 1964, when passenger services ceased on the Vale of Glamorgan Line. Although that line has been back up and running for just under twenty years, the people of St Athan have continued to go on trainless and afraid.
Until now! A deal has been struck between the Department for Transport, Transport for Wales, and the Vale of Glamorgan local council which could bring train services back to St Athan.
Mark Harper, the transport secretary, expressed support for the revival of St Athan’s rail link, saying ‘[it] would be key to unlocking the area’s huge potential for growth, encouraging more businesses to invest in the area and opening up job opportunities for thousands of people.’
Unfortunately, nothing is certain yet. The Welsh Government want more details on the cost and exact usage needs of the station before the plans move any further forward.
A spokesperson for the parliament explained that while they welcomed the development, they felt disappointed that ‘the UK Government has failed to provide any substantive detail behind the headlines for its support for a new station at St Athan, including what funding will be provided to deliver the infrastructure’.
Keep your hopes up, St Athan! Hopefully someday soon you will get your station back, and you won’t have to drive to Llantwit Major or Rhoose Cardiff International Airport to hop on a train.
Trains in the news
We at Time Out like to keep up to date on the latest in the world of UK railway news. For instance, did you see that this historic steam train is coming back to service? Maybe you missed that Network Rail is building a train line in the US, or that Edinburgh’s getting a brand new £2 billion tram service. We also keep you up to date with latest information about ongoing strikes.
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