Councillors have been left furious after plans to invest £170million in local rail links overlooked much-needed disabled access improvements to an Aberdeenshire station.
Provisions at Insch Railway Station have been an issue for almost two decades, with elderly and disabled passengers struggling to use the footbridge to get to and from Platform One for northbound trains.
Transport Scotland is investing £170million on upgrading the 108-mile line between Aberdeen and Inverness, which involves redoubling the track between the Granite City and Inverurie.
Part of the project will also include extensions to Insch Railway Station’s platforms.
However, it has been revealed that in-demand improvements to make the station more accessible to the likes of wheelchair users will not be included.
Chairman of Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee (ISC), David Aitchison, recently wrote to Transport Minister, Derek Mackay, to ask why Insch had been ignored.
Insch councillor Sheena Lonchay said: “We are not going to get disabled access and we are really, really disappointed about that. We were hoping that would be incorporated.
“It is not just for disabled people, there are a lot of young mums who have to carry kids up in a flight of steps in prams.
“There is so many people that would benefit from some sort of arrangement. It is a difficult situation.”
Councillor Peter Argyle – who is a Nestrans board member – said it was “a bit of a slap in the face”.
“If Transport Scotland is spending £170million on the line, including extending Insch station, it is unacceptable in the 21st-century that the station should be inaccessible to a chunk of the population,” he added.
“We have raised the matter frequently through ISC and Nestrans but no detailed work to scope the project has been done.”
Network Rail spokeswoman, Stacey Lynch, said such an investment may could up to £5million.
She added: “We are very aware of that and have started discussions with Transport Scotland because we know it is an issue that gets raised any time we speak to anybody about Insch.
“It doesn’t form part of the project as it stands today. We are doing some investigations with local landowners to see if there is anything that can be done.
“If it was deemed to be necessary and transport Scotland instructed us to do something, we would go ahead and do that.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are aware of access issues at Insch and if a viable solution is found then access improvements would be considered in any future round of Access for All funding.”
