At a special meeting of the Area Board held on 2 September 2015, the Board awarded £2,500 to the Cllr Led Initiative – Wilton Parkway Station project, for Scoping works.
The Board will now receive a presentation on the Wilton Parkway project.
Speakers: Cllr Horace Prickett, Portfolio Holder for Transport
and Paul Johnson from TransWilts
Further information is available on the Blog page:
http://southwestwilts.ourcommunitymatters.org.uk/news/wilton-parkway-station-proposal-find-out-more/
Minutes:
Cllr Horace Prickett, Portfolio Holder for Passenger Transport delivered a presentation on the Proposals for the Wilton Parkway, following the special meeting of the Area Board held on 2 September 2015, where the Board awarded £2,500 to a Cllr Led Initiative for Scoping works.
The presentation included:
· The land where the station was to be developed was chosen as it is on a long lease to Wiltshire Council.
· Wilton was chosen as it already had a good railway infrastructure in place.
· There was a 6ft height difference between the Exeter and Great Western lines, which would have required two additional platforms for the Exeter line.
· The original quote for £10 million was too high, so an independent company SLC of Birmingham was approached for a quotation for the work. The suggested figure from SLC to TransWilts was £5.5 million.
· As part of the Stonehenge Management Plan, the management team had been consulted on how it could get people to and from the Stonehenge Visitors Centre.
· A commercial unit within the Park and Ride (P&R) at Wilton could be provided and let as a cycle hire shop.
· We would use around 300 vacant parking spaces in existing P&R for Parkway Station, plus Shuttle Bus to Stonehenge and Cycle Hire point.
· Salisbury Reds bus service had been approached to see whether they would be interested in taking a route up past the Avebury and Stonehenge sites.
· The Royal Artillery plan to have the equivalent of Bovington Camp, which would have around 130,000 visitors a year. If 20% of those visitors arrived by train from the Wilton Parkway, we would be pleased with that.
· Cycle routes could be implemented which linked three sites, to enable people to access all three in one day.
· With the right support it was thought that the project could be delivered within 4 to 5 years, but this would depend on Network Rail and finding space in Control Period 5
· The project would have to follow the GRIP process with 8 stages, of which it was at stage zero.
· A process was underway to assess this project for potential inclusion in the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) capital transport schemes. At that point a feasibility study would be carried out, if the LEP decided to support the scheme.1
Questions and comments were the received, these included:
· There was a problem with Swindon station recognising that TransWilts exists, when travelling from there to Salisbury, they do not include the most direct route via TransWilts.2
· Could something be done with the land in-between the lines? Answer: No as there was a 6ft height difference between the two lines.
· Most of our community area was west of Wilton, it is interesting to hear how the station would service Stonehenge, but people living in the Donheads can access trains from Gillingham and Shaftesbury, but to use Salisbury as a departure point for London, they need to arrive before 6am to find a parking space. Answer: We have spoken to South West Trains, they have assured us that we would give a good service from Waterloo.
· Wilton Chambers started on work for this in 2012, they were grateful that the project had been picked up and progressed, but disappointed with the lack of input there had been with us. Now there was a Wilton Heritage Plan, with 300 houses to be built on the Avenue and additional houses at Fugglestone Red, they felt that the Council should have much more vision to look ahead. Answer: We need to keep this on the boil to make it happen; it would help for people to contact their MP’s to get them on board.3
· Wilton P&R was currently under utilised, it would soon become inadequate if the station was to go ahead. Was there an option to extend the site? Answer: If P&R became over capacity, we would need to review and restructure.
· Would you be duelling the line? Answer: Network Rail and Sustrans had good prospects with Yeovil, Dorset and Devon councils; we would strongly push for doubling the track.4
Footnotes:
1 The scheme went to the Independent Technical Advisor on Monday. It will now be up to him to convince the SWLEP that the scheme should be supported. If it should not be accepted this time, we must keep pressing for the next SEP appraisal.
2 Sorted, GWR told of the problem and assurance given of correct info.
3 Cannot be emphasised too much!
4 Peter Hendry, new boss of Network Rail is to announce in a few weeks just what projects they are prepared to carry forward. Action, watch their space!