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Train station to get lifts after years of setbacks

A white-haired woman carrying bags is among passengers climbing steep steps at Pokesdown Station

Curtis Lancaster

South of England

After years of setbacks, a railways station has finally received funding to have its lifts reinstalled.

Pokesdown Station, near AFC Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium, has been without a lift for more than 40 years and campaigners have been calling for them to be brought back since 2010.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council withdrew its support for the project last month - saying it could not justify the expense.

But Tom Hayes, MP for Bournemouth East, said he has persuaded the Treasury to part-fund the project for what he calls a "truly accessible Pokesdown station".

The £7m scheme has repeatedly stalled due to reported financial issues but a £2.6m investment from the government means work can go ahead and could be finished by 2027.

The 42 steep steps at Pokesdown Station have caused injuries and are a barrier to wheelchair users and others.

Hayes said: "From elderly people who just struggle to get up and down from the platform, disabled people who have been shut out and mums and dads with prams who are having to struggle up and down these steps, it just isn't on that people have been shut out from the railways."

Ben Smith, who uses a wheelchair, said not being able to access the station like everyone else had been "degrading" and "embarrassing".

He has been part of the campaign to install lifts and has called the confirmation of funding "fantastic news".

"We can finally look forward to using transport," he said.

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