Letter to The Citizen, 30 October 2011

                                                                                            30  October   2011
Mr Ian Mean,
The Editor,
The Citizen,
6 – 8 The Oxebode,
Gloucester
GL4 1RZ.


Dear Mr Mean,


Let us go ahead with a Citizen campaign for a new railway station


I write in support of John Allison (The Citizen, Oct 28) advocating a Citizen led campaign to have a new railway station built within the railway triangle.  Your newspaper has championed many excellent causes, and I would suggest that the need for a new station now deserves such attention.

As Mr Eeles (The Citizen, Oct 27) points out, although there are welcome improvements being done to our existing station, it does not alter the fact that the station is not on the mainline route for Birmingham - Bristol trains.    Gloucester is therefore a sideline station.

Gloucester’s city planners and its councillors are about to face extremely important decisions with regards to the triangle’s development. If the current planning proposals are agreed, we would see the building of retail units in the north east side of the triangle which would foreclose any possibility to construct a new mainline station serving direct trains north and south. The planning application should therefore be rejected.

The cost of a new station at, say, £30 million would be about a quarter of the annual revenue brought in by tourists. The additional tourists would generate far more income for the city than a supermarket. A new station would also serve the expected future expansion of populations around Quedgeley and Churchdown.   More details can be found on http://glosrailway.blogspot.com/

A Citizen led campaign would take the case from the people of Gloucester to Government and Network Rail to advance the very justifiable case that our city, as the county capital, should have the mainline station it rightly deserves.


Yours sincerely,

Nick Edwards


Copies:-
Cllr Paul James, Leader of the Conservative Group and Leader of the Council, Gloucester City Council

Cllr Jeremy Hilton, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, Gloucester City Council

Cllr Kate Haigh, Leader of the Labour Group, Gloucester City Council