Pokesdown Railway Station lifts: MP frustrated by slow progress

The Conservative politician said the investment to the transport site in Christchurch Road, which includes installing lifts, was “long overdue”.

The project has a budget of £5.7million after BCP Council committed £2.6million to the work in January last year, and South Western Railway and Network Rail pledged a combined £3.1million.

Mr Ellwood, who has been campaigning for lifts to be installed at the station for many years, has secured a debate in parliament on the scheme to “ram home” how crucial it is for the area.

He told the Daily Echo: “I have been frustrated.

“This is a project I have been working on for many years and it seemed to be going well but it has been affected by national events, not least Covid, which knocked the ability for decision making to take place. Costs were impacted by limits in budget because of Ukraine and Covid as well.

“We have had to battle even harder to make sure this stays a priority with Network Rail.

“I really do not want this to fall through the cracks.”

Tobias Ellwood with campaigners and a railway boss at the station in 2015

Mr Ellwood said he was now speaking to the fourth rail minister since he first engaged with government on the project.

He said investing in a community’s transport hub was vital to ensure growth, adding that the station currently was “quite miserable”.

“I have to publicly express my frustration that we have not been able to crack on with this,” Mr Ellwood said.

“It is long overdue. People of Pokesdown and Boscombe want this to happen. AFC Bournemouth are hugely behind this because the next phase of this would be to create a specific route for fans from the station to the stadium.”

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “We’re working through the process of getting an outline design produced and then later this year we will move on to asking suppliers to tender for the detailed work, which will give us a final construction cost for the project.

“Funding has been provided by South Western Railway, BCP Council and Network Rail, and will bring the community an accessible, brighter and nicer place for customers to catch their trains.”

Network Rail said WiFi has been installed at the station to keep passengers better connected along with a large repainting scheme, excluding the bridge can canopies.

New security and fencing improvements on the Christchurch Road bridge have also been carried out.

Responding to a written question by Mr Ellwood, rail minister Huw Merriman MP said: “My officials have approved the plans for improvements at Pokesdown for Boscombe station and tenders to carry out the detailed design work on the lifts are in the process of being reviewed by Network Rail.

“There will be a further tendering exercise following on from this to secure an accurate cost for construction. Stakeholders have been kept informed of progress via a public meeting in September and will be kept regularly updated as the scheme progresses.”