New railway footbridge at Lostwithiel on hold because of embarrassing design flaw. (Article in Cornwall Live)
Residents of a Cornish town will continue to be cut off every time a train comes through after Network Rail admitted a footbridge project has been put on hold because of a design flaw. Lostwithiel had its footbridge taken away in the eighties when it is said to have lost a fight with Bodmin Parkway about which was to be the station all the London trains stopped at. Network Rail said it was removed because the footbridge had reached the end of its life.
As a result it means that every time the level crossing barriers come down, the town is cut in half and some of the passengers from the north side trying to catch a westbound train on the down line have to watch helplessly while it leaves without them and vice versa for those on the south side. Network Rail estimated that when trains are approaching or in the station, road users and pedestrians have to wait at the level crossing for an average of 22 minutes an hour.
For the past six or so years, local residents, town and Cornwall councillors and the local MP have been campaigning for a new footbridge to be reinstated over the railway line at the station. Local Cornwall councillor Colin Martin said that at the time, Network Rail said the project could cost up to £450,000 with the local authority agreeing to put £250,000 towards the project.
The organisation has now confirmed that it is having to put the whole project on hold with no indication of how long that will be for, after admitting that it had sent its contractor back to the drawing board after their footbridge design was found to be flawed and potentially unsafe.
Cllr Martin said he was baffled at the news as tens of thousands of pounds have already been spent on a feasibility study and even the colour of the bridge and other minutiae details had been chosen and agreed upon. The new bridge was due to be painted a caramel colour.
"If it gets to that level of details," he said, "how can they now say the proposed footbridge doesn't meet the safety requirements? What happened to the money spent at the initial stage on designing the footbridge if it doesn't include the correct specifications for a safe bridge?"
He added: "It is totally unacceptable that after all that time we are still no closer to getting the footbridge our town needs. Every day people are getting stuck on one side of the railway line every time the barriers come down. And there are a lot of trains coming through Lostwithiel."
Cllr Martin said the town has the busiest level crossing this side of Bristol with regular passenger trains coming through every 30 minutes or so and clay trains loaded with China clay from Bugle going to Fowey harbour and turning around just outside the town.
It is estimated that 70,348 people use the train station at Lostwithiel every year - a 91.24% growth since 1997/98.
He said that while in the past the signal box was manned by a human being, the barriers would at times be open for a short 30 seconds to let people through ahead of another train coming through. However the signal box is now remotely operated from Exeter, so the friendly barrier-lifts will no longer happen either.
Cllr Martin added: "It really puts people off using the train even when the number of trains has been increased for people to use. Is this footbridge project paused indefinitely or is there someone working on this trying to adjust the plans for this footbridge so it can be build as soon as possible?
He said there were talks to reuse the stepped footbridge from Totnes train station in Devon as the town was having a new footbridge, complete with a lift for disabled people and pushchairs, installed. Network Rail is understood to have decided not to reuse the Totnes bridge after all but to come up with their own design for Lostwithiel instead. However the cost is now £1.845m, forcing Cornwall Council to seek funding from the Department for Transport. Work on the bridge had been due to start at the beginning of 2023.