Langport Transport Group

Langport Transport Group continues to lead the way in reopening a station for the Somerton and Langport area.

The group has bid in March for Great Western Railway (GWR) Customer and Community Improvement Funding (CCIF) to support two pieces of research to further strengthen the case for the reopened railway station to serve Somerton and Langport on the main line between Castle Cary and Taunton. The group continues to work collaboratively with Sarah Dyke MP and other stake holders like Somerset Council.

The business case has been described as compelling and Phil Edge, Chair of Langport Transport Group said, "We believe it will now help deliver the station if we can show a train service concept that works. With rail industry input the business case showed sufficient pathways exist on the line for a new service. Specialist consultants now need to develop more detail about how an operator could serve the station with a particular service."

The second part of the study hopefully also to be funded by GWR's CCIF is identifying innovative and practical ways to partly offset the £15m cost of the new station for Somerton and Langport.

What does that mean for Curry Rivel?

Those trains will continue to run on the line behind the village, between London, Exeter and on to Plymouth. But in terms of convenience for residents, well, maybe not so much. The two leading candidates for the site of a new station are shown on the map, Langport Option 2 or Somerton Ricksey Lane.

At present to pick up a train there's the option of a drive to Castle Carey or Taunton – the latter roughly 12.5 miles and 27 minutes assuming no traffic hold ups, or a bus journey into Taunton and work it out from there. The Ricksey Lane option would cut that down to a 7 mile drive and 16 minutes and just maybe there'd be a bus stop factored in (if of course there is still a bus – but that's another story). Langport Option 2, described as close to the existing pedestrian railway crossing, reduces that again to a 3 mile or so drive taking 9 minutes (parking?), a short bus ride or, from the middle of Curry Rivel, about an hours walk or a quick cycle ride.

So perhaps the deciding factor for those of us in Curry Rivel and beyond to the west of Langport would be the direction of travel and the speed with which you need to reach a destination; fast train from Taunton into Paddington is circa 1 hour 45 minutes. Would a slower option – the stopping train or a change at Bath Spa perhaps – from a new Langport/Somerton swing it in favour of the possible convenience of a more local station?

For information about the project see www.langporttransportgroup.org