The long-awaited railway station in Kidlington could be on the cards - if it is made part of the Oxford Transport Strategy.

Transport chiefs at Oxfordshire County Council have suggested adding the station to the OTS package to go ahead in 2000. They hope making it part of OTS will persuade the Government to pay for it - something it failed to do while the Kidlington station was presented as a solo project.

The news was welcomed by Kidlington county councillor Dave Green, who said: "It should have been there from the start. We did suggest it in the early days but officers disagreed then - although they agree now.

"It is certainly a good thing. A station in Kidlington has been on the cards for some years and it always fails to get the Government funding go-ahead."

Cllr Green said he supported it as a local station for people in the village - not as a kind of park-and-ride station with an enormous car park. He also called for the railway companies to allow commuters to take their bikes on trains, which would make travel easier at both the Kidlington and Oxford ends.

"It should be a little local station for people living in Kidlington. The rough plans are for something very limited, no huge building, just a halt with a platform," he said.

The proposed station site in Kidlington is on public land at the Park Farm estate, north of Lyne Road.

A report to be considered by the county council's environment committee today says a feasibility study by council contractors W S Atkins and Railtrack found there was enough space for three-carriage long platforms at the proposed site.

However, land for a footpath, car park and access road would have to be acquired.

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