PLANS for Wellington’s new railway station will formally be submitted to Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) next month.

The news came out of a meeting of the Cullompton and Wellington Metro steering group chaired by local MP Rebecca Pow.

The £15 million station project is on schedule to be opened in the spring of 2025 - 61 years after the original closed under a national rail review which became known as ‘Beeching’s Axe’.

The metro group, which brings together organisations working to re-open twin stations for Wellington and Cullompton, in Devon, also heard Great Western Railway had now set up a dedicated team to work on the project.

Ms Pow said she would shortly brief new Rail Minister Huw Merriman on the project to keep him informed of what was needed for success.

She said: “Plans for a rail station in Wellington are moving forward. Things are progressing well.

“We have made the business case, but it really is important that people want to support this as well.

“We have had money from the Restoring Railways fund as a priority and we need to just keep this going so that we can actually start to deliver the project potentially by the end of 2024 or early 2025.

“I will be requesting a meeting with the new rail minister to make sure that he is fully aware of what we need and that we keep our whole project on track.”

Ms Pow said a recent survey of people in Wellington showed the number one priority for them was to have a train station.

She said the station planning application would go to SWT during December to start the process of obtaining consent to build it.

Ms Pow said the South West was working on the more new stations than any other region in the country.