A shuttle bus between Oswestry and Gobowen could provide a temporary solution for commuters after a project to restore rail links hit the buffers.

The long awaited project to re-connect Oswestry to the main line via a light rail link to Gobowen was dealt a blow last month when the new Labour government confirmed it would be scrapping the funding for a number of proposed new rail schemes, with the Oswestry project among those under review.

And this week, Lillian Greenwood, minister for future of roads and under-secretary of state for transport, told a Westminster Hall debate that £2.9 billion worth of transport projects given the go-ahead by the previous government were “unaffordable”.

Now, town councillors in Oswestry will write to their counterparts at Shropshire Council to determine the cost of establishing an integrated bus link from Oswestry to Gobowen rail station while a decision is being made.

READ MORE: Plan to restore Oswestry-Gobowen rail link thrown into doubt

A motion put forward by Green Party councillor Duncan Kerr at a meeting of the town council (September 11) said the move was about demonstrating demand for the service ahead of the government review.

“It’s about building a case, because anybody assessing whether or not they’re going to fund this. I don’t know quite where they going to fund it from now but if they’re going to fund it they’re going to look at passenger numbers,” said councillor Kerr.

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“The issue is not that there aren’t buses that go from Oswestry to Gobowen, it’s that those are service lines that go on to Ellesmere or to Wrexham and they are not integrated with the trains.

“The idea is that this would just be a shuttle bus from Oswestry to Gobowen, occasionally visiting the RJH (Robert Jones Agnes Hunt Hospital) because it’s an obvious place that people need to get to from the town.

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“The scheduled service is pretty useless after 6pm, but that’s the time many people are coming back from work in Wrexham or Shrewsbury and that’s the time they need it most.”

Liberal Democrat councillors James Owen and Jonathan Upton suggested timetabling for existing services could be adjusted to coincide with rail services, but Cllr Kerr countered that would not be feasible due to the length of the routes operated by the existing service buses.

The town council will now write to Shropshire Council to determine feasibility and costs for the proposal before determining how to move forward.