MORE details have emerged on plans to reopen a rural railway station between Abergavenny and Hereford.

Taking forward the long-mooted plan for Pontrilas station, to be renamed Golden Valley Parkway, is part of Herefordshire Council’s plan for the year ahead.

In a response to public questions on this, cabinet member for transport and infrastructure Coun Phillip Price, and director of economy and environment Ross Cook, said the council will spend £50,000 developing a “strategic outline business case” for the new station in partnership with rail industry figures.

“We are currently developing a project brief for this work and, once the individual members of the task force are confirmed, we expect consultants to be appointed and the study to start,” they said.

And they added: “In recognition of the wider benefits to the community of a new station, the scheme will be known as the Golden Valley Parkway.”

But they pointed out that the plans are still “at a very early stage” and with new station plans typically taking several years, it is currently “not possible to commit to a timescale for station opening”.

Coun Price had previously said he thought the idea “offered poor value for money” and would “not create additional capacity”.

But it has the backing of the area’s erstwhile Conservative MP and former transport minister Jesse Norman.

Pontrilas Station closed to passengers in 1958 after serving the local community for nearly a century.

Local residents launched a campaign to bring back the station in 2019, saying it could carry up to 500 passengers a day, as well as freight for industry such as Pontrilas Timber and Black Mountain Quarries.

Currently, anyone wanting to use the train locally must travel to Abergavenny or Hereford, which are 25 miles apart.

The Welsh Government Transport Minister Ken Skates pledged his support in his first stint in the role in 2020, but the final decision is down to the UK Government with the station site a few hundred yards over the border in England.

People say there is plenty of demand for the station, which could also serve heavy transport for the Pontrilas Army Training Area.