We need your help!

SKLR Member Jamie King, breaks through the barriers to travel on the Railway and formally opened the new platform on Saturday 5th April 2025.

At yesterday’s formal opening of the rebuilt platform at Sittingbourne Viaduct station which enables passengers step-free access from the street to the train, we also had to make an appeal for help.

As we have demonstrated, we strive to make Sittingbourne’s Steam Railway accessible to all and have raised around £50k in funding from the UK Government, Swale Borough Council, councillors and our own members donations to improve the station so that it step-free from the street to the train.

Unfortunately, the company looking to build flats and houses on the old wharf site adjacent to the skatepark and barge museum now wants to bulldoze our step-free access route so that their development can have foot & cycle path to the main road. This means we will have to close our step-free entrance so the only way in is via the steps on the north-side of the station, undoing 5 years’ hard work and preventing disabled visitors and those with large buggies from being able to visit us.

This is after a site visit with the Swale Borough Council Planning Team to see and discuss the issues around the proposed development and they have still proposed bulldozing our step-free access.

This will have a huge effect on the Railway, its volunteers and its passengers, there fore we are seeking , as a condition of planning, a solution that ensures uninterrupted safe step-free access from the car park to the station, both at completion of the building development and during its construction.