One of Somerset's busiest railway stations could soon get a new car park to cope with increasing commuter demand.

Castle Cary railway station handles more than 354,000 passenger journeys per year, according to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and serves as the closest railway station to the Glastonbury Festival.

Great Western Railway (GWR, which operates the station) opened a second car park on the northern side of the station in May 2024, providing an additional 193 spaces for passengers.

But Councillor Henry Hobhouse (who represents Castle Cary and the neighbouring villages) has now revealed that a third car park may be needed to cope with additional demand and prevent people from parking along the busy A371.

Mr Hobhouse made his comments when Somerset Council's communities scrutiny committee met in Taunton on Thursday morning (February 5), as part of a wider discussion about the Glastonbury Festival.

He said: "We have a major problem now and it's going to get worse, because both car parks at Castle Cary railway station are now full daily.

"The number of people travelling from Castle Cary to Taunton or London is increasing dramatically, and GWR is looking to put a third car park in.

"That creates a problem during the Glastonbury Festival, where they close the main car park to put the buses in it, to enable the festival-goers to get away."

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The station is one of two in Somerset which will receive accessibility upgrades in the coming years as part of the government's 'access for all' programme (the other being Yeovil Junction).

Castle Cary currently has a pedestrian bridge straddling all three platforms, but there are no ramps or lifts installed to allow disabled patients to utilise the bridge – leaving them reliant on station staff to help them across.

Under the programme, 50 per cent of the design work for accessibility upgrades will be completed by March 2027 and the remaining 50 per cent by the autumn of the same year – by which time GWR is expected to have been nationalised.

Mr Hobhouse continued: "They are putting in a new walkway over the rails which has been partially funded by the Eavis family and by The Newt, and that's going to have lifts which is going to make it much easier for disabled people to get from the trains onto the buses.

"This year, the Creamery café was closed because it couldn't cope with the influx and we had people parking on the road again.

"I don't quite know how we're going to deal with it, because if Castle Cary gets a lot more popular, quite frankly it doesn't want to be the home of the Glastonbury Festival."

Dan Okey, GWR's head of regional development, said that additional sites for parking were currently being explored but that no timeline for the delivery of such a facility had yet been agreed.

He said: "We recognise that Castle Cary railway station car park experiences high demand, particularly during peak times.

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"We are exploring options to increase car parking capacity, including potential sites beyond the railway.

"However, any expansion is subject to securing funding and obtaining the necessary consents, including planning permission where required – though we acknowledge that budgets are currently extremely constrained.

"We remain committed to meeting the needs of all our customers and continue to explore sustainable transport solutions, including recent improvements to bus access at the station."