Park Barn railway station a step closer

Fiona White, County Councillor for Guildford West, has welcomed the news that a new railway station serving Park Barn, the Surrey Research Park and the Royal Surrey County Hospital has come a step closer with Guildford Borough Council earmarking £5 million in their budget to help build a new "Guildford West" railway station in Park Barn.

The money will initially be used for drawing up a business case and feasibility studies for two potential locations for the new railway station. The Enterprise M3 LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) has also committed to help fund the station as part of a £12.5 million transport package for Guildford and Network Rail has included the new railway station in its future plans, saying there is a good business case for it.

Fiona White commented: "I'm absolutely delighted at the commitment from Guildford Borough Council. Obviously this is not a new idea - Park Barn residents were first promised a railway station decades ago - so it's fantastic to know it's now coming closer to becoming a reality.

"It makes so much sense to have a railway station there to give people access to the hospital, the research park and the university without having to use the local roads and would help to remove some of the congestion at the A3 bottleneck. It would be great thing for the whole area and I really hope that now all the parties involved will just get on and build it as soon as possible."

The two potential locations are being considered are:

• A western site at the bottom of Pink's Hill, next to Applegarth Avenue and the Research Park
• An eastern site close to the Egerton Road bridge over the railway line

The station is not planned to have a car park.

You can listen to Fiona White being interviewed about the news on BBC Surrey (starts at 2hrs 14mins 30sec).

Full details of Guildford Borough Council's plans can be found here (pages 23 to 26).