Cathays railway station sits in one of the most visible corners of Cardiff, wedged between the university’s main buildings, the Students’ Union and the civic centre. Each year, close to a million passengers pass through its platforms. For disabled travellers, however, the station has long been defined not by where it leads, but by where it stops.
In May 2023, BBC News reported that disabled people had been struggling to use Cathays Station for more than 20 years. At the time, it was already one of Wales’ busiest stations, yet wheelchair users and people with reduced mobility could not cross between platforms independently.
The footbridge connecting the platforms has no lift and steep steps, with Transport for Wales itself describing the station as only partially step-free. On its website, TfW states that, while both platforms are step-free, ‘there is no facility for wheelchair users, mobility scooter users or persons with reduced mobility to cross between Platform 1 and 2 due to a steep footbridge.’ Passengers are advised to travel to Cardiff Queen Street and double back if they need to reach the university or civic centre.
The advice given to disabled passengers was, and remains, to travel past Cathays to Cardiff Queen Street, cross platforms there, and then travel back in the opposite direction. No extra ticket is required. What is required is extra time, extra energy and a willingness to accept a workaround that campaigners have challenged for decades.
The BBC report made clear the issue was not new. Disabled students had been raising concerns since the late 1990s. Funding to improve access had been announced in 2019 as part of the UK Government’s Access for All programme. Transport for Wales said a new accessible bridge was ‘proposed’ as part of the South Wales Metro. Cardiff University said it shared students’ concerns and would work with partners to deliver a fully accessible station ‘as soon as practicably possible.’ Two months later, the paperwork appeared to catch up with the promises.
In June 2023, detailed supporting documents were submitted to Cardiff Council outlining plans to replace the existing footbridge at Cathays. The documents are striking in their clarity. The current bridge, built in 1969, is described as offering ‘no facilities for persons of limited mobility,’ with a stair pitch so steep and movement so pronounced that it could give users the impression it is unsafe. Modifying the existing structure, the documents conclude, is not feasible. ‘A new one is required.’
Seven viable options were considered, including standalone footbridges and designs integrated into the university’s Centre for Student Life building. The preferred option – known as the ‘Integrated University Option’ – proposed removing the existing bridge and replacing it with a single-span structure linking Senghennydd Road directly to the Centre for Student Life. The design included a fully enclosed lift tower, step-free access to both platforms, CCTV, lighting, help points and a lift capable of accommodating wheelchair users and mobility scooters.
The documents also reveal how long this solution has been in the making. Land adjacent to the station had been purchased several years earlier specifically to enable an Access for All compliant footbridge. The Centre for Student Life building had been designed with ‘passive provision’ to allow the bridge to connect directly into it. In other words, the surrounding infrastructure had already been shaped around a future that has yet to arrive.
On 27 July 2023, Cardiff Council granted prior approval for the works. The planning officer’s report concluded that the development could not reasonably be carried out elsewhere, would not harm the Cathays Park Conservation Area, and would enhance the area by providing ‘a more accessible footbridge at this station.’ In planning terms, the path appeared clear. Nearly three years later, construction has not begun.
For Millie Davies, Cardiff University Students’ Union’s Accessibility Officer, the delay is not an abstract one. ‘Accessibility goes so much beyond just being in a lecture theatre,’ she says. ‘For students to fully engage with university life, transport has to be accessible too.’ Davies holds the role on a voluntary, part-time basis alongside her degree, and says Cathays’ position at the heart of campus makes its inaccessibility especially stark.
The advice to divert via Queen Street, she says, feels unnecessary and exclusionary. ‘You’re being pushed away from where you actually need to be,’ she explains. ‘It’s extra time, extra energy – and for a lot of disabled people, energy is limited.’ For many disabled students, university is their first real experience of independence. Not being able to use the same station as everyone else, she says, takes that autonomy away.
The impact is cumulative. Repeated access barriers affect confidence, mental health and a sense of belonging, and can shape whether students feel able to take on part-time work, placements or social opportunities. Watching others disembark at Cathays while having to remain on the train reinforces a sense of being peripheral, rather than part of the flow of campus life.
What makes Cathays increasingly difficult to defend is not disagreement, but consensus. Campaigners, planners and transport bodies appear aligned on the nature of the problem and the shape of the solution. The planning documents are explicit. The approval is in place. The need has been recognised for more than two decades.
With passenger numbers continuing to rise, reaching 933,746 entries and exits in 2024/25, Cathays Station has become one of Wales’ busiest gateways. Yet disabled passengers remain unable to use it independently. After a 20-year campaign and nearly three years since planning permission was granted, the question is no longer whether Cathays can be made accessible. It is why, despite so much agreement and preparation, it still has not been.