Railway station expected to be fully operational in weeks after £7m revamp

Twm Owen, local democracy reporter

A revamped railway station still isn’t fully operational due to red tape, a council has admitted.

A £7.1 million project to provide a new car park, as well as other improvements, at Pontypool and New Inn railway station started in March 2022 and it’s now thought the much delayed opening may not happen until near the three-year anniversary of construction starting.

Torfaen Borough Council has now said it is hoping for confirmation the car park can open “within the next few weeks”.

Welsh Government

Work has been funded by the council, the Welsh Government and Cardiff City Region and was intended as one of the first South Wales Metro projects with the creation of a 140-space car park between the station and the A4042 intended to provide a park-and-ride facility.

It is hoped making travel to Cardiff from Pontypool and surrounding areas easier would boost economic prospects and take vehicles off the region’s strained road network.

But though the facility was originally due to open in summer 2023 it has been hit by a series of setbacks blamed on bureaucratic delays.

In December Torfaen council leader Anthony Hunt told councillors he expected the station to be “fully operational” by “early 2025” and acknowledged frustration but said council officials had been working to save it from additional costs.

At that time Torfaen council said it hoped the car park would open in January – but three weeks into February it still remains coned off from the A4042 with no access for drivers wanting to catch trains from the station that has remained open.

When the council said the station could open in January it said the project was due to have been completed in summer 2004, but additional work, which was eventually carried out in the autumn, had delayed that.

Historical issues

Work to regrade and resurface the platform had to be carried out which the authority described as addressing historical issues.

The original opening date had been summer 2023, with a new footbridge installed that March, but work continued on site until early autumn that year.

In December 2023, councillors in Monmouthshire were told the station, close to its border, was unlikely to open until at least May 2024 despite work seemingly having been completed.

Christian Scmidt, passenger transport planning manager for Monmouthshire County Council, said in December 2023 he understood the key work had been completed but necessary permissions weren’t in place.

He told councillors: “My understanding is there are issues with the signing off of some work at Pontypool and New Inn, the new bridge and car park, I believe there were some late changes made that now need effectively signing off and the place can’t open until that has been done.”

At that time Torfaen council said Network Rail was conducting safety assessments while the UK Government’s Office of Rail and Road said it was “engaging” with the council but hadn’t at that time received the necessary information for it to approve the scheme.

Michele Mitchell, Torfaen council’s senior officer for highways and transportation, this week said “the governance process” had taken a “few weeks longer than anticipated” but it has now provided the required information.

She said: “The documentation required by the Office of Rail and Road has been submitted and we expect to get notification that the car park can open within the next few weeks.”