The railway station at Horton-in-Ribblesdale in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales now has a new footbridge that is part of a multi-million-pound investment to make the station safer and more accessible.
Horton-in-Ribblesdale station is managed by train operator Northern and is on the Settle to Carlisle line at the foot of Pen-y-Ghent, one of the peaks in Yorkshire‘s Three Peaks walk
Until the installation of the footbridge, it was necessary for passengers and walkers to use a foot crossing to cross the railway lines.
As well as being part of the station infrastructure, the bridge is a new public right of way that provides a safer alternative to crossing the railway at ground level.
Lifts are also being installed as part of the footbridge, and they are expected to be in service by next summer.
Until the installation of the lifts has been completed, a temporary crossing has been provided north of the station.
The Department for Transport’s Access for All programme provided £1m towards funding the project.
This summer, Horton-in-Ribblesdale was one of the stations served by Northern‘s Saturday service from Rochdale to Ribblehead for people who wished to explore the Yorkshire Dales.
“It’s great to see investment going towards improving safety for passengers and walkers in this wonderful area. I’m pleased that the project keeps accessibility in mind too.”
Julian Smith, MP for Skipton and Ripon
Responses
Another vantage point for railway photography, thanks Northern, I will send them a congratulations fax.
Given the volume of right-of-way users coming off Ingleborough on the Three Peaks Path, the foot crossing would have been a risk. The bridge is sensible installation.
Good news. Shame that Garsdale Head continues to have no disabled access at all from one platform. No crossing of track permitted either.
Horrible!!! And a waste of money.
Looks nice but I would tend to agree with Mark that this is unnecessary. Yes it will improve safety on paper but the line is mostly quiet and the crossing is easily navigable. I’m sure the money could have been better invested.
I am reminded of the British Waterways who 20 or so years ago ordered a steel footbridge in error. To save face they erected it on a towpath in some woodland. It remains there to this day, little used , because it goes from nowhere to nowhere.
What a waste of money. There’s hardly any traffic on the line. It’s not remotely dangerous crossing this line.
If people can safely cross the high speed ECML with its frequent trains then I’m sure they can cross this line where’s there’s barely any traffic all day.
There are 18 passenger trains a day through this station, plus typically about 4 non-passenger trains (which are potentially more of a risk as they won’t be stopping at the station and so will be going faster).
But while it may not be the busiest foot crossing in terms of the number of trains, it must be one of the busiest in terms of footfall. Because it isn’t just passengers getting to/from the northbound platform, it is on the very popular Three Yorkshire Peaks hiking route, with hundreds of people a day walking it, plus any number of people going for shorter walks on the extensive footpath network. And hikers on the Three Yorkshire Peaks are, by the time they reach Horton station, almost at the end of their challenging 25 mile trek, and are often pretty knackered by that point and just looking forward to finishing and getting their boots off – often walking in groups, rail safety at a crossing where there isn’t great visibility as you’re on the inside of a curve in a cutting is probably not top of their minds.
Now you personally might not care about that, you might think that it’s their own silly fault if they are too tired to cross a railway line safely, but Network Rail has a duty of care to people using the public footpath that crosses the railway, as well as to rail staff who might be traumatised by a near miss or at worst hitting a pedestrian on the crossing. Having a proper footbridge here is very welcome, and will significantly reduce the risk of dangerous incidents occurring.