Wellington in Somerset is to be served by the railway again, after the government approved the building of a new station.

The new station forms part of a wider project to create a Devon and Somerset Metro network, which will also see the reopening of Cullompton station.

Following the submission of the Strategic Outline Business Case at the beginning of 2021, fnding to develop the project was announced in the autumn budget statement in October of that year, and since then Somerset Council and Mid Devon District Council (MDDC) have been working with Network Rail and the Department for Transport (DfT).

Network Rail is leading on the project, supported by Great Western Railway and also working with Somerset Council, Devon County Council, The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership and Wellington and Cullompton Town Councils.

In spring 2022, the Department for Transport provided five million pounds to fund the further development of the project.

The market town, located seven miles (eleven kilometres) south west of Taunton, saw its original station close in October 1964 as part of the notorious Beeching cuts, carried out under the auspices of the then Conservative government.

Now the local Conservative MP Rebecca Pow (Taunton Deane) is claiming credit for the new station, stating that she “spear headed” the campaign that has run for more than seven years. However, Somerset Council acknowledges that the project is also supported by local Liberal Democrat MP Richard Foord (Tiverton and Honiton).

Pow claims to have been working with “all involved stakeholders” since becoming Taunton Deane’s MP in 2015 and to have been “working hard to make the business case to Government in Westminster”.

She said: “I am absolutely thrilled with the news! This is what we have all been working on for many years and to receive this news is tremendous not just for the local people of Wellington, but it will bring much needed prosperity to the area through this extra connectivity. It will benefit businesses, their employees and especially the many people accessing educational establishments up and down the line, not to mention improving congestion on the roads and reducing pollution.

“I am delighted to be delivering a service that local residents want, support was clearly demonstrated at the initial event I held in 2016 in Wellington to gauge interest in a station. Two hundred people attended that meeting and there was unanimous support for a station. Thousands of people signed my subsequent petition which I presented in Parliament.

“I have been pleased to chair the Metro Rail Committee comprising of all the relevant stakeholders and to be the strong voice in Westminster putting our case at every opportunity. I must thank everyone involved in our team, including GWR, Network Rail, the councils and the LEP for the professional work done to reach this major milestone. This announcement today means that what started as a dream has now become a reality thanks in particular to a Government prioritising opening new rail stations in the right places.”

Rail Minister Huw Merriman MP, added: “Connecting Wellington to Somerset’s railway network is a major step forward for the area. Fast trains to London and Exeter open up great opportunities for the local area and I’m looking forward to seeing spades in the ground. I’d like to pay tribute to Taunton Deane MP Rebecca Pow for her tenacity and efforts to secure the new station, including engaging with local people in the town. Somerset’s railway network is expanding under this Conservative government, creating jobs and opportunities across the county.”