Good News for Campaign to Double Swindon to Kemble Railway Line

The Swindon-Kemble rail link was given the green light at a meeting of the South West Region Transport and Infrastructure Board in Exeter. The way is now cleared for the Department of Transport to give the final go-ahead and work could now begin as soon 2011. The scheme to double the track should cost around £50m - of which £20m has already been committed through the South West region. The balance will now come from the £30m originally allocated to the Westbury Bypass improvement, which is not going ahead now.

Councillor Stan Waddington, county council cabinet member for environment, said: "This is very good news for Gloucestershire and a triumph for the persistence of all those people and businesses that have supported our campaign to get this scheme brought forward. Altogether, more than 800 people signed our online petition and another 60 businesses, representing around 10,000 employees, sent letters of support. This was on top of a similar campaign we ran last year, when more than 2,000 people signed an online petition calling for action."