Wantage & Grove station: Setback for reopening hopes

Proposals for a new Wantage & Grove Parkway Station were considered as part of the Department of Transport's Ideas Fund

The government says it has no plans to reopen a train station despite campaigners saying there is an increasing need for it.

Wantage & Grove in Oxfordshire was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1846 but has seen no trains since 1964.

Andy Holding, of Wantage & Grove Station Supporters Group, said a reopening was required due to an increasing population.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said it had no plans for the station.

Proposals for a new Wantage & Grove Parkway Station were considered as part of the DfT's £500m Restoring Your Railway scheme which was set up to "explore options to restore lost rail connections to communities".

Thirty-eight bids received funding but the application for the Oxfordshire station stalled in the final round.

This is despite the Oxfordshire rail corridor study, published last year, suggesting that such a station could provide the "additional infrastructure" required in the area.

'Vital importance'

Oxfordshire County Council and Vale of White Horse District Council commissioned SLC Rail to look into its feasibility.

It said the station, which could provide services to London, Banbury, Didcot, Oxford, Swindon, Bristol, and Birmingham, "exceeds the DfT's minimum benchmark requirement".

Mr Holding said it was needed because roads were "becoming busier and busier".

He added: "I'm hoping they'll reconsider in the future. It has been a knock, I'm not going to deny that… but I think the case is a strong case and obviously with the growth in the Vale of White Horse and Oxfordshire as a whole this railway station would be of vital importance."

A DfT spokesperson said while the scheme "wasn't successful in the final round", promoters had received "detailed feedback" on the reasons why.

"The DfT admitted that the proposal presented a strong case for the scheme in the context of expected growth in the area and referenced previous studies covering costs and feasibility," Oxfordshire County Council explained.

"It said the scheme had support from a range of stakeholders.

"However, it claimed evidence to support the benefits narrative could be more detailed, and said the scheme carried a risk in the form of the feasibility of operating services to stop at the station on an extremely busy, critical strategic corridor."