Manea railway station set for car park as Sunday train service is launched

A village railway station looks set to finally get a car park for passengers following an application to build one by Fenland District council.

The council is looking to build a 112-space car park on land adjacent to Manea railway station on the Cambridge-bound side of the track s off Fodder Fen Road.

The site, owned by Mr R Wales, of Station Road, Manea, is currently paddock-land.

Hopes of a car park for the station, which recently saw the re-introduction of a Sunday service, have been circulating for years and in May 2016 they were put on hold due to "complex issues".

Among those issues at the time was the close proximity of the car park access to the level crossing, which meant extensive work was needed to address the matter through designs, railway and highway engineering requirements and road safety audits.

The latest plans, which have been submitted by Wendy Otter, Fenland's transport development manager, include a new footpath linking the car park with the station platform as well as landscaping.

A drawing submitted with the application shows the lay-out of the parking spaces and the location of the car park entrance, which will be opposite the property known as Homeleigh.

Lighting and boundary fencing will be part of planning conditions with both issues being raised by Cambridgeshire police's designing out crime officer, who commented on the application to say he had reviewed the area and said: "I would consider this to be an area of low vulnerability to the risk of crime."

However, he also questioned whether the car park would be locked overnight after the last train.

A two-hourly Sunday service was launched on May 17 after years of campaigning to get trains stopping in the village seven days a week.

The campaign continues for a one-hourly service, and for late night trains too. In the meantime the station has recently had a new shelter installed as part of a major programme of improvements funded by Cambridgeshire mayor James Palmer.

Read more: ‘Complex issues’ delay Manea car park