Wetherby train station: Businessman says poor transport links in Leeds market town are weakening economy

Chris Matejak, 40, had wanted to take on the lease of a Wetherby watering hole, but when he found out that the town was not serviced by rail, he said he was forced to abandon the goal because it would not be a profitable business.

Now, the Bradford entrepreneur has launched a petition that has garnered almost 500 signatures to reintroduce a station in the area.

Chris said: “When I was doing my research to take on the pub, I went for a walk around Wetherby and I thought, where’s the bus station? I asked someone and they pointed to a shabby, old shack. I said, are you having a laugh?

“Then I asked, where’s the train station? And they said, there isn’t one. How can you expect a pub to draw in business? I’m not going through with taking on the pub, because I don’t think it can earn money. I am quite disappointed and pretty angry.”

Wetherby has been unreachable by rail for almost 60 years and it is thought that if a train station was reintroduced, it could boost tourism and benefit the local economy.

The town’s station shut for passengers in 1964 and to goods two years later under the ‘Beeching axe’, a sweeping series of route closures that came as the country’s railway system was restructured. Parts of the lines are now used for housing developments, while other parts are used as cycle routes.

Network Rail, the body that owns the lines, said there are currently no plans to build a new station in the town, but that bosses would “continue to review the feasibility of any opportunities to support the government’s objectives for rail”.

Chris, who comes from a Polish background, has previously run pubs in London and was particularly disappointed to be dropping plans in Wetherby as his uncle was the first Polish police officer in the town in 1970s.

On Tuesday (July 11), Wetherby Town Council is set to agree a response to Chris’ petition, which currently has 472 signatures.