HOPES have been raised for the re-opening of a railway station at Arthington which would serve Otley and the surrounding area.

A new station in the village to serve the surrounding area is one of 30 that the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority (WYPTA) wants to see re-opened and is said to be 'near the top of the list' in priority.

And Otley's MP Harold Best (Labour, Leeds North West), who has campaigned to re-open the station, is to meet with Railtrack this month to push the issue.

At the public launch of the Otley Quality Partnership, which will see improvements in the future of bus travel in the area, Councillor Mick Lyons, chairman of the WYPTA, said he was hopeful of re-opening a new station at Arthington.

He said: "What we have got is a firm called Railtrack that owns all the infra-structure on the railways. If we want to go into negotiation, at this time, there are 30 stations across West Yorkshire and we will argue and talk with Railtrack to get these stations in.

"We are talking about Arthington Station. We want to run another hopper service to Arthington and open the station up there. I don't think Otley is, at the moment, one of those stations. Of course we are looking at Otley, but Arthington at this time is more important, and more liable to be successful than Otley at this stage."

He added: "Arthington is definitely on the list and near the top of the list, but Otley, at this particular point, is not."

A spokeswoman for Metro said that the plan was a long term one, but that it was recognised that Arthington had the potential for a railway station and a park and ride scheme to serve the surrounding areas, including Otley.

She added that it was not yet possible to put a time-scale on the project.

MP Harold Best, who has been a long-time campaigner for the re-opening of the station, said: "Railtrack have said they are now doing an evaluation our proposals to look at the re-opening of the Arthington Station with a link to Otley and the surrounding areas. There are a lot of people who don't have cars in the rural areas.

"I have been pressing for it since before I was an MP. When I was a county councillor, during our period of office in the early 1980s, we managed to push up the number of people travelling on public transport.

"It was all brought to an abrupt halt by the Government of that particular time who set about privatising the public transport system. We have paid a terrible price for that."

A spokeswoman for Railtrack said: "We have actually got a meeting with Harold Best on May 14, but Railtrack have no plans to increase stations in that area.

"Obviously we will be discussing such issues with Harold Best."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.