A new railway station for Bow Street should be open by late summer.

Welsh Government transport minister Ken Skates visited the building site on Monday to view the start of work on the new £8 million railway station at Bow Street, describing it as “vitally important”.

The train station is being funded by the Welsh Government and Department for Transport. It will include a park-and-ride, cycle storage and multi-modal transport interchange.

Mr Skates said: “The project is estimated to be worth £8m, that’s a considerable investment. Any work that’s required will be carried out in a way that’s very sympathetic to road users at the moment. So traffic disruption will be kept to an absolute minimum.”

Mr Skates said will help parking and congestion in Aberystwyth. He said: “It will enable people to commute into Aberystwyth therefore reducing congestion as you enter and leave the community of Aberystwyth.

“It will ensure that people have options. They can choose to leave their car at the station and commute in, whereas in the past it’s often been the case of people having to drive into Aberystwyth for work or to access services.”

Karl Gilmore, rail programme director for Transport for Wales, told the Cambrian News: “The parking planned is in the region of 70 spaces, some of which will have passive provision for electric charging. So we’re going through getting funds from the Welsh Government at the moment to make sure they are. But we’ve put the passive provision in now to make sure that this is protected for the future.”

Concerns have been raised about the entrance to the station being opposite a T-junction of the A4159 and A487.

Mr Gilmore said: “We’re working with the Welsh Government about doing some realignment of the T-junction to make it safer.”