A new temporary car park has been opened to rail users at Castle Cary station.

Although the car park will deliver more than 190 additional car parking spaces, it is not yet fully complete and will need to close again in the New Year to enable contractors to finish work on the access road.

More car parking spaces have been much needed at the station which is located on the GWR line from London Paddington to Taunton and the Southern Western Railway route from London Waterloo to Yeovil Junction.

Trains travelling from Bristol Temple Meads to Weymouth also call at Castle Cary. The present car park is often full on weekdays and, until now, no additional parking has been available nearby.

The vital project is taking place on land purchased by the railway and has been funded by GWR and the Department for Transport and is being delivered with the help of the Emily Estate.

Once complete, an additional 193 spaces will be provided along with four electric vehicle spaces, new lighting and a new accessible route which will like the car park to the station.  There will also be improvements to the existing station forecourt as well as the bus stop.

The station is popular with commuters to Bristol and London and sees thousands of people pass through during the annual Glastonbury Festival.

GWR has been keen to open the new space as soon as possible, despite the fact that the access road still needs to be resurfaced. This part of the project could not be started immediately as this particular works package needed to be re-tendered after the movement of utilities on the access lane.

As a result, the car park will close temporarily in the coming months to allow contractors to complete the work.  GWR has said it will warn customers when the car park is due to close again once the contractors confirm dates.

Station Manager for Castle Cary Jordan Welsby said:  “We’re committed to focusing on improving the railway, enabling more people to take advantage of the train services we offer, and we wanted customers to be able to use this new car park as soon as they could.

“To do so we have temporarily opened the car park before work to resurface the access road is completed. Unfortunately, that means we will have to close it for a short while when contractors return in the New Year to complete the works.”