Anger over delays for access for all scheme at Biggleswade train station

On Thursday, MP Richard Fuller, representatives from the Bedfordshire Rail Access Network, Town & Central Bedfordshire councillors and officers met with Network Rail to discuss the latest delay to the installation of lifts at the station.

Campaigner Julian Vaughan, chair of BRAN, said: “Network Rail explained to us that when they were doing piling work for the foundations in February they came across adverse ground conditions that caused a delay to the project. Previously, they had drilled some exploratory boreholes, but of the four boreholes only one of them gave them cause for concern – and they went on the information from the other three boreholes that gave no cause for concern.

“These ground conditions caused a delay, and although the piling has now been completed the delay means that the contractors will be putting in a new estimate of costs. Further, the opportunities to do work on the railway when trains aren’t running are now limited due to the upgrade to the East Coast Mainline, with a new digital signalling system and the project has missed several available slots due to the delay.

“The end result is that they hope to restart work in July of this year and there is a ‘provisional’ completion date of Summer 2025.

“We know this will be extremely disappointing to many, and we made this very clear to the Network Rail team.”

The current cost of the Access for All project is more than £10million. The long awaited project first received funding in 2019.

In an open letter to Network Rail’s CEO Andrew Haines, Mr Vaughan said: Our bid for ‘Access for All’ funding for Biggleswade was submitted around the time you became CEO of Network Rail in 2018. Yet, almost six years on, the station remains inaccessible to many, with now no firm date for lifts at the station.”

Mr Fuller said: “The further announced delays to the completion of “access for all” improvements to Biggleswade station are very disappointing. This project has not progressed as rapidly or as satisfactorily as was originally hoped.

"I will be writing to the Rail Minister on behalf of the group to express our concerns about these delays and to seek improvements to the existing footbridge.

"The original announcement that Biggleswade station had been selected was back in April 2019 alongside 72 other stations across the country. Back then, these projects were due to be completed by March 2024. Covid will have had an impact but we are now looking at a delayed completion in the second half of next year.”

Network Rail has been approached for comment.