Regular Country Times letter writer, Rattus Rattus, has taken aim at the political establishment with their latest letter to the County Times noting the lack of funding for rail travel in Mid Wales. Read the letter here.
What do you think? Why is Mid Wales always left out when it comes to funding and support for public transport?
Carno Station Action Group has been fortunate to have the support of some key figures, including Steve Witherden, our MP.
On 11th February the Country Times covered our campaign. You can read the article here.
Witherden makes the case for reopening stations, and his proposed amendment to the Great British Railways Bill which would make this easier. The article was supported by a Facebook post and video on Witherden’s page, which outlines his commitment. On 22nd February Steve Witherden expressed, through his Facebook page, disappointment that the latest round of funding for new stations has seen no commitment to mid Wales. Search for Steve Witherden on Facebook to see his posts and support for our campaign.
The more public figures who back our campaign, the more likely we are to be heard. Do you have contacts or access to networks where we can share our message and campaign? Get in touch – we need the help of everyone in Carno and surrounding areas who will benefit from a reopened station!
What’s happening with our campaign?
Following a request from Ysgol Carno we organised a short chat with one of the classes, talking about the history – and the future – of the station campaign. The current Secretary of CSAG John Ellison, visited Miss Rowlands’ class and had a lively and enjoyable discussion while they looked at some old photographs of the station and goods shed before it was surrounded by the Laura Ashley offices. One of the questions for John was, why do we need a station in Carno. He replied by saying that when they are older and looking for employment, they would have more job options without the expense of buying a car to travel to work. Or, if they find work locally then visitors and holidaymakers could come here and help make local employers successful. John commented – “All in all I think we all had a good time and (hopefully) they all know a bit more about the station campaign.”
The class teacher, Emma Rowlands added “Following the visit the children are now keen to play their part and have asked what they can do to help. We hope to arrange a fundraising event to donate to the cause. They are very keen and thoroughly enjoyed the visit.”
The pictures below were taken by Miss Rowlands and are used by permission.
CSAG will have a stall at Carno Show this year on Saturday 20th August 2022 from 2pm. Please come and have a chat and ask any questions you might have and we will do our best to answer them.
We will be inviting people to have a photo taken to show their support for the campaign. If we get enough we will post them here after the show to say thankyou. See you there!
On the 19th May 2022 in the House of Commons , in a debate about Connectivity and the Railways, Craig Williams asked a question to the Rail Minister Wendy Morton. The record from Hansard is shown below:
Craig Williams (Montgomeryshire) (Con)
What steps his Department is taking to connect more towns to the railway network.
The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Wendy Morton)
The Government are investing record levels in rail enhancements across England and Wales. The £500 million restoring your railway fund is currently supporting more than 45 schemes to reconnect communities and reverse the Beeching cuts.
Craig Williams
Will my hon. Friend join me in paying tribute to the Carno station action group, which has campaigned for more than two decades to reopen Carno station? I implore her to meet me to talk about the Welsh Government’s kind offer to put forward 25% of the funding to open the station at Carno in Montgomeryshire.
Wendy Morton
I know that my hon. Friend is a fantastic champion for all things to do with Montgomeryshire, particularly for better transport. Sir Peter Hendy’s Union connectivity review supported further improvements between mid-Wales and the midlands. We are obviously considering them very carefully, but I would be more than happy to meet my hon. Friend.
We would like to thank Craig once again for his support for the campaign and look forward to meeting with him soon to discuss the details of his meeting with Wendy Morton.
Lee Waters, the Welsh Government Deputy Minister responsible for Rail has written to the UK Minister for Transport Grant Shapps, contesting the refusal for funding for Carno and Ely Mill stations. The letter is supported by a Technical report from Transport for Wales which details why they thought that the reasons given for the rejection were incorrect. The letter and supporting report can be read on the Welsh government website HERE.
CSAG are encouraged that the Welsh Government are still supporting the opening of a station at Carno, and are pushing at the highest levels to move the project forward.
After a long, long delay we finally received the news today that the application for funding for the station has been rejected by the UK Government. This is because, we believe, the costs in the application from the Welsh Government were too high. Looking at those application documents it is clear that those estimated costs when compared to say St Clears, were inflated by what we believe were unnecessary and expensive infrastructure around the new platform. This meant that the cost for the single platform proposal for Carno was significantly more than the two-line, two platform station at St Clears. In our view this gave the application for Carno little chance of success and we deeply regret not being involved in the preparation of those documents before the funding application was made.
Having said that, this is the furthest the campaign has ever got, and we have been told by the UK Department for Transport that this unsuccessful bid will not stop further bids when future funding becomes available. Whilst very disappointed with todays announcement, we look forward to working with the Welsh Government, Craig Williams MP, and Russell George MS, to produce a new station proposal which will allow us to provide this much needed resource to the residents of Carno and the surrounding area.
After a long delay the UK Government announced today that only one of the 4 stations for which the Welsh Government applied for funding in June has been successful. In a confusing announcement where the New Stations Fund has mysteriously risen from £20m to £32m, St Clears in South Wales is the only station in Wales which is to receive funding. To say we are disappointed is an understatment!
However, having discussed the situation with the Welsh Government, we have been told that this is not a final announcement and that other New Stations Fund applications are still in progress. So is Carno one of those stations? We will have to wait and see.
