Cold water has been poured on a proposal to build a new train station for a prospective 2,500 home development in Twyford.
Developers Berkeley Group are seeking to build a new 2,500-home community in Ruscombe Parish called ‘Twyford Gardens’.
The proposal has been made as part of the Wokingham Local Plan update, which lays out where new houses could be built in Wokingham Borough.
A key feature of Twyford Gardens would be the construction of an entirely new train station, which would be on the Reading to London Paddington trainline and serve the new community.
But Twyford already has a train station along that line.
READ MORE: Twyford Gardens: arguments for and against 2,500 home plans
Rationalising the proposal for a second station in the village, the Twyford Gardens development website states: “Twyford will soon host the only Elizabeth Line station in Wokingham Borough.
“The Elizabeth Line will increase the capacity for rail travel, for the first time providing direct services to central London and beyond.
“However, Twyford station is not due to receive any significant investment or upgrade to cope with the likely increased passenger demand.
“Twyford Gardens would provide a new railway station for the borough. This would be an additional stop for both Elizabeth Line and Great Western Railway services with up to eight services per hour as well as an interchange for local buses.
“A new station would relieve pressure on facilities and car parking at the existing Twyford station, which would continue to operate alongside the new station.”
But any new station would have to be built with the collaboration of Network Rail, which manages the nation’s railway network, as well as the Great Western Railway and Transport for London, which run the train services that pass through Twyford’s existing station.
A Network Rail spokesperson expressed scepticism over the Twyford Gardens station proposal.
They said: “While we welcome proposals to open new stations and improve services for passengers and communities in Berkshire, the opening of a new railway station in Twyford does not currently feature in any of our future plans.
“The proposed location of this new station is tricky, both physically and in terms of integrating with the timetable.
“Our preference would be to work with the developers to improve Twyford’s existing railway station to provide better connectivity to the new development and into central Reading.”
The response from Network Rail could be seen as another blow for the Twyford Gardens proposal, which was also not chosen as a place for housing development in the Local Plan update, in part because it would involve building on the London Metropolitan Greenbelt.
READ MORE: Key sites revealed as part of Wokingham Local Plan update
However, Berkeley Group hopes that its plan will be reconsidered after Wokingham Borough Council’s planners conduct possible revisions to the Local Plan update following the consultation process, which closed at 5pm on Monday, January 24.
Previously a spokesperson for Berkeley Group said that Twyford Gardens would relieve the housebuilding pressure on the south of Wokingham.
Berkeley Group is currently engaging in a private consultation on its plan, which can be accessed here: https://twyfordgardens.co.uk/next-steps-and-feedback/
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