In 2007 Carno Station Action Group travelled to Cardiff to present a petition to the newly created Petitions Committee of the National Assembly for Wales. There is a News item HERE with a report and pictures of the petition being handed over on the steps of the Senedd.
Since then a huge amount of work has been carried out by the Action Group to illustrate the benefits of opening a station in Carno which is on the longest stretch of line in Wales without a station. Since the recent enhanced service was introduced, twenty four trains now pass along the line each day without stopping in Carno – and we still do not have a commitment from the NAW to seriously consider the work which has been done.
In May, without warning or external consultation, the NAW introduced a new three stage process for evaluation of new stations in Wales and produced a list of 12 stations which had been “scored” in the first stage of the process and would now proceed to stage 2 with a more detailed assessment. Only four stations were on the full list for Mid-Wales and only one was on the list of twelve – Bow Street. Putting aside the fact that we disagreed with the scoring system used for stage one, and and that the figures used were incorrect, in June it was announced that Bow Street had been granted full funding from the NAW and the UK Government to build a station which is estimated to be completed in 2020. This we believe, makes a nonsense of the new process and we are now pushing hard to put Carno on the initial list of 12 stations in place of Bow Street.
As part of that push we have decided to present a new “Ten Year Anniversary” petition to highlight our frustrations and show that there are still a huge number of people who support the opening of a station in Carno. The new petition will again be presented on the steps of the Senedd on Wednesday 4th October. We will be collecting signatures right up to the last minute so if you want to add yours, forms are available in the Spar shop and in the Aleppo, as well as other shops around the area.
The new petition text is:
We, the undersigned, welcome the development of a Business Case for the re-opening of Carno station, following Carno Station Action Group’s petition to the Assembly 10 years ago. We note that the revised Business Case demonstrates a ratio of benefits to costs of 1.65 and that the stopping of most trains at Carno is compatible with the existing enhanced timetable. Carno is a relatively remote community on the longest stretch of railway without an intermediate station in the whole of Wales and a station here would open up dramatically improved, sustainable access to jobs and services. We therefore call on the National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh Government to reopen Carno station within a 5 year timescale.