TWO new train stations could be built in Worcestershire as part of a highly-significant plan for the future of transport.

One of the locations, at Fernhill Heath near Worcester, comes 51 years after a previous one serving the area was closed down amid deeply controversial cuts.

The idea, from Worcestershire County Council, is included in a major new blueprint aimed at easing congestion up to 2030.

A consultation is starting this week about the fourth revision of the 'Local Transport Plan', an abstract document detailing how county people will move about.

The 85-page dossier includes:

- A new train station "in the vicinity of Fernhill Heath" with the potential of a park and ride facility into Worcester

- A second new station in Rushwick, somewhere close to the A4440

- A "comprehensive review" of major traffic junctions to see if any need to be enlarged or completely reconfigured to take more vehicles

- "Systematic" investment in what council chiefs call 'travel corridors', where people are encouraged to walk and cycle with better surfacing and lighting

Some of the major junctions listed for overhauls include the A38 Droitwich Road, the Holt Heath junctions A443 and A4133 and the B4211 Upton Road, as well as the main routes into Welland and Leigh Sinton from Worcester.

The 'active travel corridors', which could see routes enlarged to turn them into attractive cycling destinations, focus heavily on Worcester including its connecting roads with Kempsey, Hallow and Droitwich.

The new corridors, which would make the roads look and feel dramatically different, also include the canal towpath from Diglis to Tibberton, Worcester to Pershore, and Lower Broadheath to the emerging Worcester 6 business park off the M5 Junction 6.

The plan cites the completion of dualling the A4440 from Carrington Bridge to Powick Hams as crucial, something bosses are bidding £75 for from central Government, and includes Worcestershire Parkway rail station at Norton as another significant project.

A redoubling of the Cotswold Line and a revamp of Hartlebury rail station is among the hoped-for aims, and it also calls for "the complete resignalling and reconfiguration of rail" in Worcester.

The document states that Worcester has some of the "oldest rail signalling in the UK", saying the line is "antiquated" and contributes to services being so unreliable, which in turn encourages more car use.

It is not site specific on either the Fernhill Heath or Rushwick stations, with the need to develop business cases for both before bosses reveal any suggested pieces of land.

The last rail station in Fernhill Heath, dating back to 1852, closed down in April 1965 as part of a major national redrawing of rail infrastructure known as the Beeching cuts.

A small, intermediate station at Rushwick which opened in 1924 suffered the same fate, but train use has grown beyond all predictions in recent decades and continues to climb.

The county council's document will aim to drive forward firm plans over the next 13 years, with the public able to take part in a 12-week consultation from this Thursday up to Friday, March 17.

Cllr Simon Geraghty, the leader, said: "It's one of our top priorities, to cut people's journey times and congestion.

"I really welcome this three-month engagement period with the public, we're in listening mode about how we fix some of the issues, not just now but into the 2020s and beyond."

* See the document for yourself HERE