THE county’s new draft Big Economic Delivery Plan sets out wide-ranging goals for the county over the next three years.

But some of the more ambitious schemes from the original plan it stems from, published three years ago, appear to have been quietly dropped while the proposed plans for a revived station for Ross-on-Wye is still under consideration.

The Herefordshire Big Economic Plan in early 2023 proposed developing the case for investment in a new Hereford Parkway station at Rotherwas as well as exploring the case for reopening Pontrilas station.

Both Herefordshire Council schemes have long been discussed as ways to improve connectivity in the county by reviving lost rail infrastructure.

More recently, and ambitiously, councillors led by Ross-on-Wye member Louis Stark have also backed progressing plans to revive the lost Hereford/Ross-on-Wye/Gloucester line.

In March, Herefordshire’s Cabinet member for transport Philip Price said in response to a public question that the council was carrying out a countywide rail strategy review, which includes looking at the potential for a stop at Pontrilas.

Intended “to identify realistic, deliverable options for strengthening rail access across Herefordshire”, the study’s findings “will be reported later this year”, he added.

But the sole reference to rail in the newly published plan is to point out that the wider £1.75-billion Midlands Rail Hub project has the potential to unlock additional capacity and improve service reliability on routes serving Herefordshire.

The council will support the doubling of the frequency of the Hereford-Worcester service, currently hourly, along with “rail enhancements to better connect Herefordshire with its neighbours in both England and Wales” – without going into specifics.

Calls for a new rail link between Gloucester and Hereford via Ross were made in March as new housing targets for the greater Ross area had increased in with many thousands additional homes anticipated in the coming years.