St Mellons private rail station welcomed by Chris Grayling

A proposal to create Wales' first privately-owned railway station has been welcomed by UK Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.

He told MPs he was very happy to see plans for St Mellons Parkway in east Cardiff go ahead.

Cardiff South and Penarth MP Stephen Doughty said south Wales needed new stations to make the most out of rail electrification.

The new station has been provisionally named Cardiff Parkway.

Mr Doughty said the proposals to build the station in east Cardiff were "backed by the private sector, backed cross party, backed by the Welsh Government, backed by Cardiff council".

The Labour MP asked when there would be a decision from the new stations fund.

Mr Grayling said it did not need quite the same system of approval as stations seeking public funding.

The Conservative MP said: "I'm very happy to see that project go ahead."

He said the real issue was making sure it worked with timetables.

"Private sector project - a private sector funded project - I can see no reason why any of us would do anything else except want to support it if it's practical to do it," he said.

BBC Wales economics correspondent Sarah Dickins understands the developers are working closely with Welsh Government to ensure that there is a frequent service into Cardiff and Newport city centres.

The only other privately-owned station is at Southend Airport.

The new station, which would be part of the Metro network, would be built south of St Mellons Business Park.

The business park would focus on science and technology and would have a 1,600-space car park and a bus station.