Railway station to open after four month delay

2:13pm Thursday 24th April 2008

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THE new Llanhilleth railway station is set to open this Sunday after four months of delays.

The station is the last Blaenau Gwent stop to open on the 13 mile Ebbw Valley rail link from Ebbw Vale to Cardiff.

The Argus revealed last year that the station was delayed due to slow worms on the proposed station site.

But this weekend the single platform will open to the public.

Already a total of 100,000 passengers travelled on Arriva Trains Wales trains from February to early April - the first two months of the new Ebbw Valley Railway hourly train service.

Robin Morrison, Chief Executive of Blaenau Gwent Council, said: "Opening the station at Llanhilleth gives local people more opportunities to use the new train service - and it marks the completion of the first stage of the Ebbw Valley Railway project in Blaenau Gwent.

"We can all take pride in our achievement as the first local authority in the UK to successfully lead a partnership project to re-open a disused railway line for passenger trains."

The Crosskeys station along the 18 mile line to Cardiff is still to be completed.

As well as the station, a new bus link is also being introduced from Abertillery to Llanhilleth station timed so that passengers can board the trains from Ebbw Vale Parkway en-route to Cardiff Central.

The bus link will operate from Monday.

The 908 bus link service, operated by Henleys Bus Services, will provide buses to meet every train Mondays to Saturdays.

For full details on train times, log on to the train operator Arriva Trains Wales at www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk.