JUST a few weeks remain for people to have their say about the new Worcestershire Parkway Rail Station.
Hundreds of people attended recent pubic exhibition events held at various locations, including Worcester Foregate Street, Shrub Hill, Evesham and Pershore Rail Stations.
But council bosses are reminding people they can still find out more and make comments by logging onto www.worcestershire.gov.uk/parkway until Sunday, November 30.
Earlier this year Central Government provisionally allocated £7.5million from the Local Growth Fund towards a new station after a successful bid through the Strategic Economic Plan.
The remainder of the funds, about £10million, are expected to come from Worcestershire County Council.
The scheme is key in the Strategic Economic Plan to realising Worcestershire’s ambition of creating 25,000 new jobs and bringing in an extra £2.9billion in to the local economy by 2025.
The new Worcestershire Parkway Station will be situated near Norton, Worcester, at the triangle of land formed by the intersection of the Cotswold and Birmingham to Bristol Lines and the B4084.
Supporters say it will help Worcestershire’s poor accessibility to and from London due to limited frequency and lengthy journey times users currently experience on the Cotswold Line.
An additional benefit would be the opening up of access to Cross Country lines currently inaccessible from Worcestershire leading to a reduction in car use and congestion caused by passengers being forced to travel to Birmingham International and Warwick Parkway stations.
The station will be made up of a single platform on the Cotswold Line and two platforms on the Birmingham to Bristol Line together, along with a new station building including booking office, toilets and shops with access offered by stairs and lifts.
It will also have up to 500 car parking spaces, bus stops, taxi rank and drop-off area.
Coun Simon Geraghty, county council cabinet member for economy, skills and infrastructure, said: “Thank-you to everyone who has taken the time to visit the exhibition events that have taken place over the last few weeks and shared their views.
“This project, which is backed by the LEP, MPs, all local authorities and the Chamber of Commerce, is ambitious and the importance of making it a reality cannot be stressed enough because of the part it would play, sitting alongside other infrastructure projects such as the A4440 Southern Link Road, in driving economic growth; creating new jobs over the next 10 years.
“I’d encourage anyone interested about Worcestershire Parkway to log on to www.worcestershire.gov.uk/parkway to find out more and let us know their views via the simple online survey.”
