Calls to get £15m station reopening back on track

A £15 million project to reopen a Stoke-on-Trent railway station remains 'in limbo' - despite hundreds of people calling for it to continue.

- Phil Corrigan

Meir Station, which closed in 1966 under the infamous Beeching cuts, was among the schemes set to be included in the Restoring Your Railway (RYR) programme.

But last year the Labour government cancelled RYR, saying that there was never sufficient funding for projects such as Meir Station. Individual schemes are being reviewed but no final decisions will be taken until after next month’s Spending Review.

A total of 579 people signed a petition calling for Stoke-on-Trent City Council to lobby the government to re-establish Meir Station. Lead petitioner Faisal Hussain, Conservative councillor for Meir South, above, believes the scheme is feasible and would help fix the area’s transport problems.

He told the housing, regeneration and operations scrutiny committee that previous funding allocations of £50,000 in 2020 and £1.7 million in 2022 had resulted in Network Rail drawing up a full business case.