Cardiff: Disabled people's 20-year railway station access fight

Disabled people have been struggling to use one of Wales' busiest railway stations for more than 20 years.

Cardiff's Cathays station is the seventh-most used in Wales yet people with mobility issues and wheelchair users cannot easily cross platforms.

The footbridge between the two platforms has no lift and the Transport for Wales (TfW) website describes the steps as steep.

TfW said a "proposed" accessible bridge was part of the South Wales Metro.

The station is right next to Cardiff University so Alice Moore, who represents students with disabilities, said it was "a really important aspect of public transport for students".

She said the city's good transport links were "no good when disabled students - arguably the students who need it the most - are excluded from using it".

Cathays station was used 514,730 times in 2021-22 - more than Bangor, Wrexham General and Cardiff Bay.

Funding to make the station more accessible was announced by the Department for Transport in 2019 as part of its Access for All programme.

TfW's website advises wheelchair users travelling from the valleys to travel to Queen Street station, then get on another train to come back to Cathays if they wish to access the university or Civic Centre, but an extra ticket is not needed.

Alice, who has cystic fibrosis, said she was "disappointed and appalled" at this suggestion.

This issue is not a recent one and has been a problem for students for more than two decades.

Disability activist and photojournalist Natasha Hirst, 44, was the disabled students' officer at Cardiff University in the late 1990s.

She recognised the problem during her time and it is yet to be addressed.

She said: "You've got that footbridge and if you've got mobility impairments, there's no easy way of getting from one side of the station to the other.

"I guess during the daytime you can go through the students' union and use the lifts but if you're not a student you're not really going to feel able to go into a building that you don't know.

"Why should people have to do that?"

Ms Hirst said Cathays station needed a brand-new accessible footbridge with either a lift or a long ramp.

Kat Watkins uses a wheelchair and often commutes from Swansea to Cardiff - she opts to drive to work in Cathays most days due to the access problems at the station.

She said TfW's suggestion that people extend their journey in order to get to the right platform was "such a hassle".

"It's not as simple as they think because you've got to wait for your train and then wait for another train," the 36-year-old said.

Disability Wales said it was "vital that disabled people and wheelchair users can access public transport".

It added: "It is important that public bodies engage with organisations, such as ourselves, so we can ensure disabled people's voices are heard."

TfW said it was working with partners on "the initial stages" of a fully accessible footbridge at Cathays station and would "share further information as it progresses".

A spokesman said the company was "committed to improving accessibility at stations throughout the Wales and Borders network and our work is guided by our dedicated experts who advise us how to support disabled, deaf and older customers to use our services effectively".

Cardiff University said it shared students' concerns and would work with TfW and others so people could have "a fully accessible station in Cathays, as soon as practicably possible".