MORE than eight years after they started a campaign to re-open an historic railway viaduct, those behind the plans have reached a huge milestone.

Members of Carlisle Waverley Viaduct Trust (CWVT) have submitted official proposals to Carlisle City Council for permission to establish a new link between the Cumberland Infirmary and Etterby Road in the form of a bridleway across the Waverley Viaduct.

David Ramshaw, one of the trust’s eight directors, said getting to this stage was “vital”.

“Thing are moving so fast now but it’s vital that we keep moving and we don’t let it get stalled,” he said.

“There’s so much going on and so much is at stake.

“We must get the support of everybody in the city who is behind seeing this open – for the Healthy City Initiative, the path and cycle network and because we would be doing a lot of good for the city.”

This week the trust presented its case for the £250,000 project to Carlisle and District Civic Trust, detailing what it’s taken to get to this stage – and why it thinks it is important to establish the link on the grade II listed structure.

The viaduct carried the Carlisle to Galashiels to Edinburgh railway and closed in 1969, though it remained open to the public to walk on for a time before being blocked off on health and safety grounds.

Mr Ramshaw said: “I concentrated a lot on heritage for the simple reason that it is not just a matter of opening the viaduct as a foot way, and possibly and eventually, a cycle way, but it’s a matter of linking up Engine Lonning and opening it up as a nature reserve.

“There’s all the industrial history that the friends of Engine Lonning are dealing with and the old canal history.”

Plans say a new asphalt surface would provide an all weather, 3m-wide path, suitable for those in wheelchairs – or parents with prams and buggies.

There will be no street lighting along the route although solar studs could be used to mark the sides of the path in winter months.

The new link would be accessible from Etterby Road, Port Road and Engine Lonning.

It would provide links to the current riverside public footpath and to the Hadrian’s Path route.

The viaduct has also been included as a proposed route on a Carlisle Cycle Network.

The proposals say that, if granted permission, construction would take place from a base off Port Road at the southern end of the project.

A Crowd Funding page raised £800 towards planning costs and will be opened up again in the future to gather more funding for the ambitious project.

More than £400,000 was spent by Highways England in 2014 to bring the viaduct back up to standard.

Railway Heritage Trust has pledged to grant up to 40 per cent of the physical construction cost of a walkway and parapets up to a maximum of £100,000 – but this is only available until 2019.

“We’ve got to get at least the bridge open by spring 2019,” said Mr Ramshaw, because only once they have opened the route can they apply for Lottery Funding.

This however relies on access and the trust is yet to come to an agreement with one land owner.

In the meantime the trust is encouraging the public to show their support.

The scheme has already been backed by a number of important groups including the Ramblers, Cycle Carlisle and the Friends of Engine Lonning – a nearby city area – as well as about 2,500 people who signed an initial petition.

The trust has also presented a plaque to Burnetts Solicitors in Carlisle as a token of appreciation for the work the firm has undertaken during the process.

Mr Ramshaw said: “Our main message at the moment is we want as many organisations and individuals as possible to send letters of support.

“We want people to say why they support us, perhaps because they used it in the past.

“We are doing our uppermost to get as much support as possible.”