Plans for two new stations on Bristol-Exeter line supported in Government Spending Review

Construction of new stations at Wellington and Cullompton on the Somerset and Devon border has finally been approved in the Government’s Spending Review, despite not being mentioned by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

The scheme at Wellington was had been shelved after the abandonment of the Conservatives’ Restoring Your Railways scheme in 2024.

A site next to the Bristol-Exeter line had been agreed, and permission has been granted to build an access road.

A large new housing estate and an almost doubling of the local population was core to the business case, with guaranteed strong passenger business to and from Bristol, Bridgwater, Taunton, and Exeter.

Work can now progress with some speed because £6.15 million has been spent completing the business case as well as most of the design work.

Gideon Amos, MP for Taunton and Wellington (Liberal Democrat) was delighted, saying: “There is no other rail project in the south-west that is ready to go and could be built and completed in the next two years, as the project is so far advanced.

“In fact, had it not been for the review in July last year, the spades would now be in the ground and the platforms under construction, because the contract was about to be let and the detailed design was almost finished.”

Simultaneous ministerial approval for Cullompton's new station, which will be built near the existing M5 services, follows the signing of an agreement in March to spend £34.5 million on a new town relief road, and publication of plans for up to 5,000 new houses in Culm Garden Village.

A Treasury spokesperson said: "The Spending Review provides funding to support the reopening of stations at Wellington and Cullompton. Further details will be set out shortly."

Wellington’s original GWR station closed (along with Cullompton) in October 1964.

The new platforms will be built slightly to the east of the old ones.