West Wales Rail Campaign group Traws Link Cymru has published a report with new research into the reopening of the Aberystwyth to Carmarthen railway.

The report, entitled ‘A Strategic Rail Corridor for west Wales’ comes two years after the Welsh Government published its own feasibility study, citing no major obstacles to reopening and that the new railway would cost approximately £775m.

The 2018 feasibility study broadly confirmed the findings of the initial scoping study of 2015, notably that 97 percent of the original trackbed was clear and that reopening was a realistic prospect.

TLC Chairman Adrian Kendon says: “Our further work on the study reveals that once an enlarged catchment area around the proposed stations is taken to account, the cost-benefit ratio would improve, and with modern construction methods, the cost of reopening the Aberystwyth to Carmarthen railway could be reduced to around £620 million, a figure 20 per cent less than suggested in the Mott Macdonald report.

“We will now disseminate our report to Senedd and Westminster politicians. The bilingual report will also be made available to download from our new website, which we hope to launch later this autumn.”

The report also reiterates the social, economic, and cultural case for reopening the railway.