Campaign for new railway station encourages children to walk to school

A campaign group sponsored a walk to school day to highlight its calls for a new village railway station to be built as a priority in Monmouthshire.

New stations are planned for the South Wales mainline to ease congestion on the M4 and campaigners in Magor who’ve spent more than a decade calling for a “walkway” station say it should be first of the five to be built east of Cardiff. 

The MAGOR campaign – that stands for Magor Action Group on Rail – used funds donated to it to sponsor walk to school days at Undy and Magor Church in Wales primary schools. 

Pupils designed tickets which were then distributed among them to be handed in if they walked to school on Friday, June 28. 

For each ticket collected, MAGOR will pay 50 pence as a contribution towards their parent teacher and school friends associations and it has also asked if local businesses were willing to offer match-funding. 

Independent councillor for Magor West Frances Taylor said group members attended school assemblies to discuss the benefits of the walkway station, intended to be within walking distance for commuters. 

She said: “We hope this might help people think how they can increase their walking to school and reduce their car journeys on a more regular basis.” 

MAGOR used money donated to it from community events such as May and Frost fairs.