As we spring into our 10th year of the campaign to open a railway station to serve Magor and Undy, it is pleasing to report that great progress is still being made!
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The MAGOR group members met in February for its first face-to-face meeting since the start of the pandemic. This was an Annual General Meeting, also joined by committee members from the Magor and Undy Community Hub (MUCH) group, where we played ‘catch up’ and celebrated our resolve and the achievements made in the joint missions to deliver the ‘Walkway Station’ and the Community Hub. You can read the minutes of that meeting by clicking here.
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As the Walkway Station is now firmly in Welsh Government’s plans for delivery, the group, at the AGM, changed the emphasis of its mission, within its constitution, to ‘attain an early as possible opening of Magor and Undy Walk Way station’. We will do this by lobbying and continuing to work closely with all of our political allies and rail industry organisations. As an example, on 10th March we were pleased to host a site meeting with members of Welsh Government which included, John Griffiths SM and Peredur Owen Griffiths SM.
Members of all political parties within Welsh Government are strong proponents of the station and take every opportunity to give their whole-hearted support. -
Talking of allies, in February I reported that Professor Simon Gibson, Chair of the Burns Delivery Group (the body put in place by Welsh Government to deliver the recommendations made in the ‘Burns Report’, following the cancellation of the M4 relief Road) had offered to visit Magor and Undy, to see the site of the proposed station. On the 16th March, Ted Hand and I were pleased to give Simon a tour of the old station sites (Undy Halt and Magor station), where we pointed out the numerous positive features (e.g. track layout, signal arrangement, footbridge, underpass and the ‘Hub Site’) that would make ‘Magor’ a quick win.
Although it was a rainy-day tour, it was clear that, over lunch back at the Golden Lion, Simon had appreciated gaining further insight into the plan and took away some ‘actions’ to explore. Hopefully more on those in due course. -
The following day, Ted, Phil Inskip and I attended a virtual conference organised by Welsh Government’s Climate Change and Infrastructure Committee. The conference focussed stakeholders, such as MAGOR, on Bus and Rail services in Wales. It gave people the opportunity to air their views on the challenges faced by the services both before, during and following the pandemic. Of course, the big change in commuter and student travel patterns and work arrangements was a major topic but ‘climate change’ and the associated ‘active and sustainable’ travel possibilities featured high in the discussions. The views gathered will help shape Welsh Government’s plans.
Paul
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