A charity working with disabled people has praised the decision to build a long-awaited step-free footbridge at Farnborough Main railway station.

However, Alison Cooper, the chief executive of Parity for Disability, said the decision was “extremely overdue” and not the end of disabled people’s grief during rail travel.

At the moment, some disabled people cannot reach the platform for London-bound trains because the footbridge has steps they cannot climb.

This forces them to travel to stations such as Basingstoke or Fleet to get trains to London.

Rushmoor Borough Council has granted Network Rail planning permission to build a replacement bridge with lifts on each side.

Mrs Cooper said: “Most of our clients are wheelchair users and cannot walk unaided, so they can’t use the bridge.”

The charity, which runs day centres in Camberley and Farnborough for people with multiple disabilities, often takes people on trips by train. Mrs Cooper said they avoid using Farnborough Main because of the access problem.

She added: “Farnborough would be a lot more convenient but we go to Fleet because there are car parks either side so we can get on trains to London and elsewhere.

“Once you get into London, access is a lot better for disabled people, but here there are still a lot of problems.”

She said they would start using Farnborough Main once the bridge was built. Network Rail said this would be by 2011.

Rushmoor Borough Council access officer Tony Patterson said: “I’m absolutely delighted. I’ve been campaigning for this for six years but there are a lot of people who’ve been waiting for this a lot longer than me.

“A lot of people will benefit from this. The new bridge won’t just be for disabled people. People who are on crutches or have difficulty climbing a lot of steps will benefit as well.”

He said he had received only a few access complaints from disabled people but this could be because they rarely complain about their problems.

He said: “Disabled people are rather stoic. They tend to put up with problems they have getting to places and get on with life.”

Mrs Cooper said platform access was not the only problem disabled people face.

She added: “When we go on trips we’re supposed to warn station staff 24 hours in advance so they can be ready with ramps to get wheelchairs on trains.

“But we rarely do it. A lot of our clients are teenagers and they don’t decide what they want to do and where they want to go that far in advance.”

The platforms at Farnborough North and North Camp stations are accessible without crossing a footbridge. But platforms 2 and 3 at Aldershot are still only accessi-ble by a subway with steps, and disabled people need help from station staff to reach them.

The bridge is part of Network Rail’s £370m Access For All  programme to improve access at around 200 stations. The programme began in March 2006 and is set to take ten years.