THE county council has said trains will be calling at Worcestershire Parkway as soon as it opens and services will appear on timetables when safety tests are completed.

Worcestershire County Council has said services will be stopping at the £22 million Worcestershire Parkway as soon as it is open and that trains do not yet appear on some timetables would be 'hidden' by railway companies until the opening date for the station was confirmed.

The county council said it expects to open "well before" the new timetable is released in May but has still not yet given a definite date.

Worcestershire County Council said train timetables had to be agreed months, if not years, before new stations opened so it could be shown that services could call there without impacting other routes and stations across the railway network.

A spokesman said: “New timetables are published in December and May each year. All of the services that will call at Worcestershire Parkway are included in the December 2019 timetable and will begin stopping there as soon as the 'Entry into Service' (EIS) process is completed and the station is open.

“Because services are not calling there at the moment, the train operating companies sometimes hide that part of the December timetable so that passengers are aware those services are not currently calling.

“As soon as EIS is completed and the station opening date is announced, the timetable will become visible again.

“The May 2020 timetable is visible in some places and shows services calling at Worcestershire Parkway because the station is expected to be open well before that date.”

The council said earlier this week it will be revealing the opening date as soon as it can but whilst building work at the £22 million pound station has finished, thorough and lengthy tests still need to be completed before it can open.