Deeside Parkway station design under way with end of 2027 completion target
A new railway station on Deeside Industrial Estate is funded and in the design stage, with a target completion date of late 2027.
Ken Skates, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, confirmed the status of the Deeside Parkway station during a visit to the site today.
The station is part of a £14bn package of rail schemes backed by both the Welsh and UK Governments.
One design question remains before construction can begin: how passengers will cross from one side of the station to the other.
The options are a new footbridge or the use of an existing minor road that passes under the railway line.
“It’s funded now,” Mr Skates said.
“The money is available. It’s in the design stage.”
He added: “We’re still on course to have it built by the end of 2027 although I would add the caveat that with rail, things tend to take longer than you ever planned for.”
The station is being designed as an experimental modular build, a method not widely used for railway stations in the UK.
Mr Skates said the approach could see the station completed within 18 months to two years, compared with the four to six years a conventional station build typically requires.
“We called it a test station to prove concepts because it hadn’t really been done before,” he said.
“We’re now calling it an experimental modular station.”
If the approach works at Deeside, Mr Skates said it could be replicated at other locations across the UK where the track is flat enough to accommodate a modular platform.
The station forms part of an investment zone shared between Wrexham and Flintshire, which the Welsh Government says could support an additional 6,000 jobs across both areas.
Mr Skates said the station would help reduce congestion on the A494 and A55, and for the first time provide a public transport link between Deeside Industrial Estate and Wrexham Industrial Estate.
“At the moment, you can’t get between the two by public transport,” he said.
“Not very easily at all.”
Transport for Wales is working with employers on the industrial estate to identify workers who could switch to rail if services were available.
The approach involves offering travel plans and discounted rail passes to generate initial demand.
The final mile between the station and workplaces across the industrial estate is expected to be served by shuttle buses.
“For many, many people, particularly with the winter that we’ve just experienced, walking or cycling that final mile or two probably isn’t going to be an option,” Mr Skates said.
“So shuttle buses are going to be probably the solution.”
Askar Sheibani, chair and founder of the Deeside Business Forum, said the station would strengthen the estate’s case with businesses looking to invest.
“I have been talking to a lot of businesses, and recently some inward investors,” Mr Sheibani said.
“They want to invest. They come and look around. You could put our manufacturing here. We need skilled people. Where can we get them?”
He said a rail link to Liverpool would give employers on the estate access to a larger skilled workforce, including graduates from Liverpool’s two universities.
“Having access to Liverpool City, two big universities there as well, massive skilled people there,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter if they are coming from England or west of North Wales.”
Mr Sheibani said demand for space on the industrial estate had been growing, including during the pandemic.
“You go to the area that the Airfield Developments is now at, it was just a piece of brownfield land,” he said.
“You go there now, you see how many businesses are there. Even during the Covid time, buildings were going there.”
In a written statement, Mr Skates said: “My hope is to see the new station at Deeside completed as soon as possible, possibly in 2027, which is very ambitious.”
“I am pushing the rail industry hard on this, adopting a modular approach which will mean the station can be delivered quicker than the traditional approach.”
He confirmed that services between Wrexham and Chester have doubled, and that from May this year there will be 50% more services along the North Wales main line.
The Deeside Parkway station is one of seven new stations being taken forward in Wales.
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