Sixteen bids for proposed railway stations were submitted to the latest round of the New Stations Fund following a Freedom of Information request. The scheme offered contributions towards the delivery of railway stations on the existing railway network.
Over £16.8m of funding was allocated to five proposals on 25 November. Edginswell was the largest beneficiary with £7.9m of funding. Thanet Parkway was allocated £3.4m and St Clears received £4.7m. Haxby and Deeside each received £400k of development funding.
Eleven schemes have not received any funding from the New Station Fund 3 scheme at the moment.
Ashley Down – located between Bristol Temple Meads and Fulton Abbey Wood, this station would have benefited from the developing MetroWest network including new services towards Henbury
Carno – located on the Cambrian line through mid Wales between Caersws and Machynlleth, it is one of the leading contenders in Wales. Successful delivery of the station here is expected to require infrastructure enhancements or timetable changes to accommodate the station stop
Charfield – located between Yate and Cam & Dursley on the Bristol-Birmingham line
Cheadle – this station would be located on the mid-Cheshire line between Stockport and Altrincham. It would be located near Alexandra Hospital
Ely Mill – Also known as Victoria Park, this station would be located on the Cardiff suburban railway network between Ninian Park and Waun-gron Park. It was one of the leading contenders for further investigation in Wales
Magor and Undy – Located between Bristol and Newport
Marsh Barton – located on the mainline between Exeter and Plymouth, this station would sit between Exeter St Thomas and Starcross
St James – this station would service the Baltic Triangle area to the south of Liverpool city centre between Liverpool Central and Brunswick
Thorpe Park – located east of Leeds, this station would serve the substantial Thorpe Park development and act as a gateway towards the substantial expansion to the east of Leeds
White Rose – located on the Leeds – Huddersfield line, this station would serve Millshaw Business Park and the White Rose shopping and business park nearby
Wixams – Featuring in all three rounds of the New Stations Fund and fulfilling a promise made as part of housing developments, this station would sit on the Midland Mainline south of Bedford
The full list enables the identification of bidding strategies for some organisations. Wales has submitted bids for the four schemes that were put forward for further work in their prioritisation scheme and their relative success in this round demonstrates the benefit of region/country-wide analysis of proposed schemes and maintenance of a scheme pipeline. Authorities with plans to increase the number of stations in their region submitted 1-3 bids for their most advanced schemes. Two established schemes with applications to previous rounds of the New Stations Fund also submitted bids.
