| Lawrence Hill rail station to become step free with new lift Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 12:43, 17th October 2025 |     |
From the BBC:
The stairs seen on the left are currently the only way of accessing platform two
An inner-city rail station is to become entirely step free for the first time in 162 years after plans for a lift were approved.
Bristol City Council has given the go-ahead for the work for platform two at Lawrence Hill Station, which will be funded by the West of England Combined Authority (Weca).
Platform one already has step-free access through the neighbouring Lidl car park, but West of England Mayor Helen Godwin said the station - which first opened in 1863 - has not been fully accessible "for too many years".
Representatives from Bristol City Council, Network Rail and Great Western Railway (GWR) have all welcomed the announcement.
Currently platform two at Lawrence Hill is only accessible via a staircase, which Ms Godwin says has excluded many disabled and older people from train travel.
"We want all of our stations to be fully accessible, so it's great that our plans have now been approved to install a new lift to make Lawrence Hill step-free," she said.
It comes as part of a wider £400 million rail upgrade across the West Country, with five new stations set to be built in the coming years at Charfield, Henbury, North Filton, Pill and Portishead.
Two others have already opened since 2023 - Portway Park and Ride and Ashley Down.
Bristol City Council leader Tony Dyer said: "Moving forward with a new station lift at Lawrence Hill is part of our wider plan for extending and improving access to rail travel across our region."
Marcus Jones, western route director at Network Rail, said: "Today's announcement brings us another step closer to bringing better rail travel for the people of Bristol and the west of England."
Weca is currently running a survey until 20 October asking people to record their experiences of using stations across the area.
| Re: Lawrence Hill rail station to become step free with new lift Posted by rogerw at 17:16, 17th October 2025 | |
A step in the right direction. All we need is a ticket machine on the Bristol bound platform where, I would suspect, demand is greater for longer journeys
| Re: Lawrence Hill rail station to become step free with new lift Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 17:39, 17th October 2025 | |
Thanks, rogerw.
May I encourage all of our members and other readers to include that suggestion to WECA, on the WECA survey: it's free, and easy to do.
CfN.
| Re: Lawrence Hill rail station to become step free with new lift Posted by infoman at 06:22, 18th October 2025 | |
The survey closes on Monday 20 October 2025,so please in as soon as possible.
This give a direct to link to the survey
https://r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/7AGE-JUP/rail-station-accessibility-questionnaire?_gl=1%2Ah395dk%2A_ga%2AMjE0NTUxMTkuMTc2MDQ0NjUzOQ..%2A_ga_LXGXBWXR0H%2AczE3NjA3NjI0NjckbzMkZzAkdDE3NjA3NjI0NjckajYwJGwwJGgw&fbclid=IwY2xjawNgBBBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHrB_tGNlvCB7WZT17DJpEug-lzTtVxJGeE7et7-10GWRTfPzo-C6VXMalfQW_aem_HoVQQysEVIOPp_lUJ_u4WA
| Re: Lawrence Hill rail station to become step free with new lift Posted by johnneyw at 11:22, 18th October 2025 | |
Survey done. I also mentioned that the lighting between the platform and street access at Redland Station after dark is pretty grim. I have no mobility issues but find that I have to take care of my footing. It must seem somewhat more daunting to someone with mobility/sight issues. Many people resort to turning on their phone torches to get to the street. It was probably something of a missed opportunity when the station's lighting was recently upgraded. The platform access is technically on private property but surely some strategically placed lighting by the platform entrance could have helped more.
