A RAILWAY station which cannot be used by wheelchair users is finally set to have a lift installed.

Campaigners have been pushing for improvements to Pokesdown station in Bournemouth for many years.

The station is currently inaccessible to people in wheelchairs and to anyone else who is unable to negotiate 42 steps down to the platforms.

Users who can’t tackle the steps are forced to travel to either Bournemouth or Christchurch station, both roughly two miles away from Pokesdown.

South Western Railway has revealed installing a lift will be one of a number of projects to be undertaken as part of a £90 million investment programme.

It announced the cash injection on the UK’s first National Stations Day.

A spokesman told the Daily Echo: “We plan to install passenger lifts to the existing footbridge at Pokesdown and are in the process of carrying out a detailed structural survey. We intend to complete the works at the earliest opportunity.”

He was he was unable to be more specific about a date for the work to be carried out.

Campaigners over the years have included members of the Pokesdown Community Forum and Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood. Petitions have also been handed in to 10, Downing Street.

Boscombe East councillor Andy Jones has been campaigning for many years, along with fellow members of the Pokesdown Community Forum.

He said: “It beggars belief that in this day and age we have a station which cannot be used by so many people.

“This includes the elderly and disabled as well as families with pushchairs and people who are carrying luggage.

“To hear that the work is going to start is very welcome and not before time. We have been campaigning for a very long time.”

Cllr Jones said lift shafts already exist at the site because there were goods lifts there in the past.

A commitment to installing a lift at the station was part of the agreement when South Western Railway took over the franchise last year.

Improvements across the South Western Railway network will also include improved Wi-Fi, more car parking spaces and refurbished waiting rooms and toilets.

There will also be new LED lighting, better platform customer information screens and new ticket barriers to improve safety.