Oswestry is a town in North Shropshire with a proud market trading heritage – a place where people have long come to visit from a large rural hinterland that stretches across the countryside and over into Wales.
Yet when I read the letters that arrive at my office, speak to constituents, or overhear chatter on a market day, a common theme arises – how the lack of reliable transport links is holding Oswestry back.
In Parliament this week, I made the case to the new Government to go ahead with plans to connect Oswestry and nearby Gobowen by light rail.
This is a campaign that matters so much to the town’s social and economic success.
From healthcare to high streets to the environment and the economy – I can’t overstate what a transformational impact the re-opening of the line would have for the area.
During a recent visit to the job centre in Oswestry, staff told me that the number one barrier to people accessing work is poor public transport. Meanwhile, local businesses report real difficulties in recruiting. They need to be able to attract people to work from a much wider area – and not just those with a car.
We are in a ridiculous situation where employers can’t recruit and job seekers can’t apply – both because of the same poor public transport.
And when we talk about a town being held back by a lack of investment, what we are really talking about is people.
It’s young people who can’t access those job and educational opportunities. It’s local entrepreneurs that can’t recruit for their business. It’s NHS workers and carers.
Reconnecting Oswestry to the mainline would be transformative when it comes to solving these problems and you don’t just have to take my word for it.
The Department for Transport’s own feedback to the Strategic Outline Business Case was extremely positive, praising the ‘strong strategic case’ and its ‘Very High’ value for money.
In fact, the project is forecast to make more money that it would cost to set up. We look at the way that governments have wasted money over the years – yet this scheme would provide real value for taxpayers.
This is in stark contrast to the other Restoring Your Railway schemes approved by the previous Government, which were judged to offer ‘poor’ value at best. It was Oswestry’s strong business case that persuaded the DfT to commit to funding it.
As is always the case, there is a healthy local debate about the supposed drawbacks of the project.
Some have argued that you could just run a shuttle bus. But there is already a service and it hasn’t worked. It doesn’t run in the evening or early morning, it’s frequently delayed and sometimes it doesn’t turn up at all.
In terms of investment, a shuttle bus won’t unlock the economic regeneration that a rail link will.
Besides, a fully operating station has the potential to unlock private funding and regeneration.
Others, who are regular car users, have suggested that they may not personally benefit from the scheme. The big point missed here is about traffic.
Congestion in Oswestry is a real issue. The number of journeys taken by car which could be taken by train number in the thousands each day. If we want to ease congestion, we need good alternatives.
And we’re not talking about a slow, heritage steam train. What’s planned is very light rail that involves very little disruption and very many benefits.
Shropshire has some of the worst public transport in England and addressing this is long overdue. The county has just one bus route on a Sunday, and has lost more bus miles since 2015 than any other county. This is holding Oswestry and Shropshire back.
A rail link would help solve the problems this absence of transport creates.
It would enable businesses to find quality candidates for vacancies they can’t fill.
It would remove a huge barrier from those without a car seeking work beyond their immediate area.
It would enable young people to access a far greater range of educational provision.
It would unlock investment and regeneration in the town centre.
You can’t generate growth, jobs, skills and investment if a town is isolated from the rest of its region.
That’s why the previous government promised to fund it – and it’s why the new government should too.
Making the case for light rail in Shropshire
