A CAMPAIGN for better disabled access at Port Glasgow Railway Station is nearly at an end - after almost 30 years.

Town councillor Jim MacLeod and local MP Ronnie Cowan are celebrating an announcement by the Department for Transport that the terminal will received a share of a £300 million fund to create 'step-free' zones across the UK.

It has been decades in the making for Port resident Mr MacLeod, who first appeared at the steps of the station in the early 1990s with then MP Norman Godman calling for urgent action to help disabled passengers get to and from each of the two platforms.

The ward two councillor believes a lift at either side of the bridge over the railway lines is the only realistic option.

Mr MacLeod said: "We've already been waiting 20-odd years to see this getting done. "Now I have another MP involved and who has taken up the cudgels.

"In fairness to the council, Port Glasgow Regeneration Forum and the Port Glasgow West Community Council, everybody has been pushing to get something done.

"Probably a lift at the bridge, similar to what they have at Inverkip station, would be the best way forward.

"As it is, there's a long, convoluted way to get in.

"We will also probably need some sort of stairlift here at the entrance for disabled passengers to get up the steps.

"The devil is in the detail and we really need to see how much money is involved and what the timescale is for the work."

The work is expected to be carried out by Network Rail.

Inverclyde's MP will also be ramping up the pressure on officials to provide more information about the project - and to look at a roll-out of 'step-free' access elsewhere.

Mr Cowan, who is a member of the UK Parliament's transport select committee, said: "We'll now be pushing to find out the cost involved for a station this size and when the work is going to be done.

"We want this at every single station right across the network."