New £30m rail project gets government backing
West Midlands mayor Andy Street, Aldridge and Brownhills MP Wendy Morton, director of rail for TfWM Tom Painter and Walsall Council leader Mike Bird at the proposed Aldridge Station site
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A £30m project to restore rail services to a West Midlands town for the first time in almost 60 years has secured government backing.
Detailed design and development work can now start on plans for the station at Aldridge in Walsall, which closed to passengers in 1965 as part of the Beeching cuts.
The town sits on the freight-only Sutton Park line between Walsall and Birmingham.
The Department for Transport has given conditional approval to start work on an outline business case to provide direct passenger services to Walsall.
Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, said: “With diggers already in the ground working on three new stations on the Camp Hill line alongside Darlaston and Willenhall stations on the Walsall to Wolverhampton line, Aldridge will be a very welcome sixth addition to our region.
Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), part of the West Midlands Combined Authority, is funding the development from its £1.3bn transport investment programme.