Step-free access promise for Somerset railway station
Highbridge & Burnham plans are welcomed
Passengers at a busy Somerset railway station could finally benefit from step-free access following a commitment by their local authority.
Highbridge and Burnham railway station lies on the Bristol to Exeter mainline, served by Great Western Railway (GWR), and currently handles nearly 230,000 passengers per year, according to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
The station’s two platforms are currently linked by a footbridge, with disabled or less mobile passengers having to use the narrow road bridge on the B3139 Market Street to move from one side to the other.
Somerset Council has now made a public, in-principle commitment to delivering step-free access at the station as part of its recent local transport plan.
Disabled passengers needing to move from the northbound platform to the southbound side currently have to move through the station car park up onto Market Street, use the narrow pavement on the existing road bridge and then move through the Somerset Way housing estate.
Kathleen Bennett, who lives in Burnham-on-Sea, posted on social media about her husband’s experience using the station following a live-stream by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
She said: “My husband, who is in a wheelchair, was trapped on the other side when exiting the train from Bristol.
“I had to go up the stairs to the other side to collect the car, drive it round over the road bridge to the back of the flats to where he was waiting by the station platform, and I had to wheel him to the car – not a nice experience.
“There needs to be something done about those stairs as regards disabled people, and parents with young children in prams.”
The council’s local transport plan makes a wide range of in-principle commitments to improving Somerset’s transport network – including the completion of the Steam Coast Trail active travel route, providing new connections between Glastonbury and Wells, and enhancing the Stop Line Way between Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge.
The route from the railway station to the town centre links up with the Stop Line Way, which runs from the Burnham coastal path into Apex Park and onto Tyler Way near the Highbridge Wharf housing estate.
The council has not set aside any funding for the station project within its capital programme (which was approved on March 5), but the plan commits to exploring multiple different funding sources to implement to changes.
A spokesman said: “Town-wide approaches to improving road safety would help create a safer, more attractive environment for all users.
“New development presents an opportunity to provide… further walking,
cycling and public transport links to and through the town.
“In Highbridge, the public transport offers to and through to Burnham-on-Sea could be further enhanced improved railway station access, interchange facilities and cycle connections.”
Accessibility improvements at railway stations (such as the installation of new lifts to and from platforms) have been primarily funded by the government’s access for all programme (AfA), which was launched in 2006.
The most recent round of funding, which was announced in May 2024, saw funding allocated for improvements at two Somerset station – Castle Cary (which lies on the Taunton to London Paddington line, served by GWR) and Yeovil Junction (on the Exeter to London Waterloo line, served by South Western Railway).
AfA bids are assessed on a range of criteria, including the annual passengers numbers, the priorities of the service operator, the availability of third party funding (e.g. from the council and housing developers), geographical location and the support of the local MP (in Highbridge’s case, Bridgwater MP Sir Ashley Fox).
Sedgemoor District Council put forward proposals to improve the entrance to the station as part of a £19.3m bid to the previous government’s levelling up fund.
The joint bid with Cheddar and Shepton Mallet would have seen the station forecourt redesigned to make it easier for buses to access the site, with walking and cycling improvements that would link up with a planned new footbridge to the Brue Farm development, on the other side of the River Brue.
Unfortunately, this bid was ultimately rejected by the government, with ministers instead choosing to fund a new health and social care academy in Bridgwater town centre (with a satellite site in Minehead).