A CAMPAIGN to reopen Cumnock Railway Station has been launched.

The Re-Open Cumnock Railway Station group have written to the local MP, MSPs and councillors to ask them for help in securing funding from the newly created Local Rail Development Fund.

The fund is open to any group with a responsibility or interest in local transport, such as local authorities, regional transport partnerships and local interest groups and the Cumnock campaigners want East Ayrshire Council to submit an application.

Local community councillor, Peter Black, a founder member of Re-open Cumnock Railway Station, said: “Getting our community back on the rail map would give a great boost to our local economy, helping residents access jobs, bringing tourists in and getting lorries and cars off the road.

“In the 1960s the car was king and every investment was aimed at maintaining this supremacy.

“The Beeching reforms that closed Cumnock Railway were just one more example of this.

“Fortunately, we finally have a chance to undo these choices and by bringing Cumnock Rail Station back we could see between 150,000 to 250,000 passenger journeys made using this station.”

There is appetite for better train services in Cumnock and Doon Valley.

A petition to improve rail services on the Glasgow to Dumfries line gathered almost 500 signatures in December 2017.

In their letter to local politicians, the group used Auchinleck station as an example of what could be expected from a re-opened Cumnock Station. The letter read: “Currently, Auchinleck Station hosts around 60,000 passengers per year, however in Cumnock, only 0.5 per cent of those who are in employment use rail to travel. This is seven and half times less than the average for Scotland.

“These statistics show that the current situation is not working for our community.

“If re-opening Cumnock Station brought proportionally the same usage as Auchinleck we would expect to see around 150,000 passengers use the station per year. If the station was used in line with other, similar towns, such as Maybole in South Ayrshire we could potentially see upwards of 250,000 passengers.”