Concerns over £30m grant for train station linked to project that says it can create 6,000 jobs

Martin Shipton

Concerns have been raised about a re-announced UK Government grant of £30m towards building a railway station linked to a speculative business park development in an eastern suburb of Cardiff.

When he was an MS, former First Minister Vaughan Gething energetically pushed the case for a Cardiff Parkway station to be built in St Mellons, adjacent to the Hendre Lakes project, a private business estate proposed by developer Nigel Roberts, who claims it could support as many as 6,000 jobs.

Mr Roberts wants mainline trains from London to south Wales to stop at Cardiff Parkway, although Great Western Trains has shown no interest in doing so.

Lyn Eynon, the planning lead for conservation group Cardiff Civic Society, said: “I read with interest Professor Mark Barry’s comments last week on the budget implications for rail in Wales. As I argued in March, the touted £14bn [for rail infrastructure investment in Wales from the UK Government] is a mirage unless it is translated into hard commitments in Spending Reviews, which as Mark notes it has not been.

“Mark has been more enthusiastic than I am about Cardiff Parkway, although I agree Cardiff needs a new station on its eastern edge. It is now clear that this will not be built without public money. I too initially read the £30m as new money, although Mark now judges this is just moving money within an existing envelope, a regular trick to give an impression of generosity. The consultation on eight new railway stations around Swansea Bay looks like another game of mirrors without money to deliver them.

“Mark says Cardiff Parkway will cost at least £60m. That number has been quoted over the past couple of years for a two-platform commuter station, but costs keep rising. Cardiff council has gone back to the government for another £20m on top of the existing £100m to complete a one-mile connection from Cardiff Central to Cardiff Bay (half of which already exists). No doubt station costs will rise too.

“Nigel Roberts would still like a station with four platforms, two long enough for London mainline trains, which would at least double the cost. I have long argued that there is no business case for that, unless the business park with 6,000 jobs ever appears, which looks like another set of emperor’s new clothes.

Office building

‘Speculative office building has all but vanished, at least in Wales. The hopes for Rolls-Royce making a major investment there are fading. It announced £300m investment at the end of September with nothing for Cardiff, and even Sion Barry [of WalesOnline] offers no more than ‘it is understood to be evaluating a number of sites across the UK’. Deputy Transport Minister Mark Hooper has indicated he is less interested in the business park than in the station.

“The location of Cardiff Parkway is probably fixed despite the ecological damage it will cause, although more modest plans could minimise that. The sensible thing would be to acknowledge that any business park will be much smaller and later than promoted, so focus on building a standard two-platform station there for commuters going east or west plus those heading for Cardiff Centre/Bay for retail or entertainment. That requires a large park-and-train with improved road connections to the M4 and A48, plus good public/active travel routes for those living in the Trowbridge/St Mellons area if they are to benefit from it.

“There seems to be nothing for Cardiff council’s plans for improved Metro connections within Cardiff. Splott will have to keep waiting.”

‘Devolve powers’

A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said: “Rail infrastructure across most of Wales is not devolved. We don’t fund non-devolved areas. If the UK Government wants us to deliver rail infrastructure, they need to devolve the powers and associated funding to us as we have demonstrated with the transformational delivery of the core valleys lines.

“Our position is clear, we have asked for £1bn of the £14bn to be brought forward to deliver all six Burns stations [recommended following a review of transport needs in south-east Wales led by Lord Burns] as soon as possible. That includes Cardiff Parkway which remains a priority for the Welsh Government.

“Unlike the Welsh Government’s support for the joint venture development of Cardiff Parkway, the £30m allocation made in the Autumn Statement is the first time the UK Government has committed defined funding towards the Cardiff Parkway station, it falls significantly short of the funding required to deliver the station. It is not new money, it is drawn from the funding already allocated in the 2025 Spending Review.”

A website dedicated to the Hendre Lakes project has not been updated since June 2025. We left a voicemail message and sent an email to the site seeking information about how many jobs had been secured by the project. We received no response.