AT a recent meeting, we met officers and the deputy leader of the county council to advocate the development of Barnt Green Station as an interchange point for the Redditch and Bromsgrove lines.

The current plans from Network Rail aim to electrify the Cross City Line from Barnt Green down the Lickey Incline to Bromsgrove where, as was recently announced, there will be built a four-platform station, acting as the new terminus for the line, extending it from Longbridge.

Bromsgrove will also have connecting trains calling to serve stations further into Worcestershire, including the city itself.

We made the point that if these new trains were scheduled to call at Barnt Green, then the great opportunity arises for Redditch and Alvechurch passengers to make connections by rail to destinations throughout the county itself without the need to travel into Birmingham and change for the Bromsgrove and Worcester line , as is presently the case.

It was also emphasised that the point of the exercise was to develop Barnt Green as an interchange station, rather than attract travellers to the station from outside its own locality, as there is not the capacity, for example, to develop car parking at the site.

Officers conceded the county had not done sufficient to promote this development and undertook urgently to acquaint themselves with the plans of Network Rail and the train operators, to understand how the county council can put this case for improved rail transport within Worcestershire for the benefits of the county’s residents.

Worcestershire County Councillors Graham Vickery and Peter McDonald