Calls have been made for an old railway station to be re-established, to serve a proposed town-edge development of up to 4,000 homes.
The expected pressure on King’s Lynn’s roads, caused by the proposed ‘urban extension’ of the town at West Winch, could be partly relieved by re-opening a station at South Lynn, borough councillor Anthony Bubb has argued.
Mr Bubb, a member of the ruling Conservative group at West Norfolk Borough Council, said a new station on the town’s southern outskirts could also serve the King’s Lynn Innovation Centre [KLIC].
A railway station previously served passengers at South Lynn between 1886 and 1959, before becoming a coal depot and closing permanently in 1966.
Mr Bubb told a July meeting the nearest existing station down the line, serving the village of Watlington, was already under strain.
“As far as I’m aware, the parking at Watlington is at capacity,” he said.
“We should be pushing Network Rail to open South Lynn station, somewhere on the railway line near the KLIC.
“You’ve then got a Park and Ride facility, that people could park [at] and get a bus or a train into King’s Lynn itself, taking the pressure off the people that drive into King’s Lynn to park, to come back south.
“It’s not within the realms of impossibility to get them to open a new station.
“Network Rail have opened eight new stations this year in England already.
“They don’t have to be massively complicated stations, just a platform, a couple of shelters, a bit of information, possibly a booking hall, but modern technology appears to have almost done away with that requirement.”
Richard Blunt, the council’s cabinet member for development, replied: “I hear what you’re saying.
“That is in some ways more of a concern we ought to be putting to the East of England Transport Strategy, which is currently being developed.
“They are the sort of things that we are talking to them about…
“Ideas are being discussed as regards the total transport infrastructure across the whole East of England, and that is one of the areas of concern - access to mainline services is quite limited in this part of the woods.”
Approached for comment, the borough council said that while there were no immediate plans for a station to accompany the development, the idea had not been ruled out, because it could still potentially feature in Transport East's new regional plan for rail.
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