New footbridge lifted on to Hither Green station

A new footbridge has been successfully installed at Hither Green station, south-east London, as part of Network Rail's efforts to improve accessibility for customers.

The footbridge was hoisted up with a 500-tonne and 750-tonne crane and placed across the railway tracks to connect all platforms with new entrances at Fernbrook Road and Springbank Road.

The £28m upgrade programme also includes installing four 16-person lifts, staircases and a passageway between platform 4 and 5.

Once completed, the station will have step-free access from street level to the footbridge and across all the platforms.

The work was carried out on Saturday 2 May.

Senior programme sponsor for Network Rail, Paul Richmond, said: "The lifting into place of the new footbridge is a significant moment and means that people can see first-hand the scale of the work to make Hither Green an accessible station for the first time."

In addition to the accessibility improvements, there will be new CCTV, a public announcement system, ticket vending machine and Oyster card readers.

Hither Green station is a key rail hub with about three million entries and exits a year, as well as half a million interchange journeys, according to southeastern railway.

The programme is managed by Network Rail and funded by the Department for Transport and is due to be completed by next summer.

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