A PROPOSED new railway station in Herefordshire is getting closer, with the group spearheading the project optimistic that the project will happen.

Calls were first made about reopening the old station at Pontrilas in 2019, with local councillors campaigning to get trains on the line between south and north Wales to stop between Hereford and Abergavenny.

Ewyas Harold Parish Council thinks the station would serve up to 500 passengers a day, and it had the backing of the Welsh Government's transport minister Ken Skates last year – but a decision on funding is down to the UK Government as the site is in England.

The parish council has now been told it looks like the station will reopen, with the Department for Transport asking for specifics about how the station would be run by train operating company Transport for Wales.

Professor Clive Stainton, who has been leading the project for the parish council with chairman coun Peter Jinman, told a meeting on April 27 he was optimistic about it being delivered.

"I think none of us can quite believe this, but we think this is actually going to happen," he said.

"Whitehall continues to write to me and Peter [Jinman, council chair], and now they're asking for details about how Transport for Wales is going to run our brand new station.

"In the next couple of days we will have a conversation with the managing director Keolis, which is the contractor that works for Transport for Wales to run station. What we were told before that meeting is that he is very keen to make this happen, and the fact he lives fairly local helps us.

"With the Department of Transport now down to this level of detail, the nitty-gritty of how the station is run by Transport for Wales, I'm pinching myself we've got this far. It does look like as if it's going to happen."