£400,000 footbridge for Moira Railway Halt

Work, at the new facility which will enable customers to safely cross the tracks while the barriers are down, is expected to start in mid March with a completion date of the summer time.

This will end a long running campaign to improve railway safety there, since the death of the Friends School pupil Olivia Hughes.

In 1999, she was killed as she was attempting to cross the railway track and struck by the Dublin-Belfast express train.

Councillor Jim Dillon, said that since the young girl’s death he and the Hughes family had pushed for better measures to improve safety on the railway line.

“Whatever measures have been taken to improve safety here must be welcomed,” he said.

“I have been pushing for improvements for many years as have the Hughes family. This news of a footbridge will be hugely beneficial for commuters using Moira station.

“Any improvements must be welcomed as this line which could be quite dangerous. If you wanted to get across sometimes you might have to wait five minutes to get across.

“The only concern I have is that while work is taking place car parking spaces will be cut. Car park spaces will be reduced to 68 spaces, the loss of 23 spaces.

“More travellers will then have to park at the Tannery car park, and walk down.”

Work will be carried out by McLaughlin and Harvey.

Translink Infrastructure Executive, Clive Bradberry, said: “Safety is our top priority and this new footbridge will ensure that everyone using the station is safe at all times while also offering better convenience to reach services.

“We are pleased to appoint our contractor who will ensure this modern new bridge has a high quality finish creating a visually attractive feature at the station.

“To maintain safety levels during the construction phase, the contractor’s site compound will need to be located within the current park and ride facility temporarily reducing parking capacity. Passengers are reminded to also use over-spill parking available at the Tannery. In addition, some night work will be required but we will make every effort to keep any disruption minimal.

“We will display passenger information at the station on project developments.

“This is an exciting time for local rail travel with strong passenger growth.”