Campaign launched to reopen rural station platform in Grimstone

A campaign has been launched to reinstate a station platform to provide rural communities with "much-needed" public transport.

Campaigners say villages surrounding Grimstone in Dorset would be "revolutionised" by a rail service.

The station, near Dorchester, closed in 1966 and the platforms were demolished.

A 500-signature petition to create a platform and request stop has been sent to Network Rail, West Dorset MP Chris Loder and Dorset Council.

Petition organiser Jack Bleasdale said: "This is a golden opportunity to give a much-needed public service to a network of villages that are desperate for it.

"We need one platform and access to it, and this would revolutionise all the villages around Frampton and Stratton."

Mr Bleasdale said, with no bus service and taxi fares to Dorchester costing about £13 each way, there would be sufficient demand to make it work.

The campaign is also being supported by ward councillor David Taylor, who described it as a relatively cheap and efficient way of providing better transport links, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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