Network Rail has said that the three surviving approach walls at Cowran Bridge have been evaluated and are regarded as stable.
In a letter to Carlisle MP Julie Minns, Network Rail said the walls would now be examined annually. The statement represents a significant change from the position in 2024, when a renewal scheme proposed removing the three surviving historic walls and replacing them, together with the failed corner, with galvanised palisade fencing.
The south-east approach wall collapsed onto the operational railway on 1 July 2023. Network Rail’s emergency response at the time recommended a “design led solution to rebuild”, but reconstruction has not taken place.
Network Rail now says the three surviving walls are no longer proposed for removal. At the collapsed corner, however, palisade fencing remains the proposed permanent treatment. The concrete barriers currently protecting the site are intended to remain until that fencing is installed.
Cowran Bridge, together with Cowran Cutting and Skellion Bridge, was added to the National Heritage List for England at Grade II in November 2025.
The latest position therefore removes the immediate threat to the three surviving walls, while leaving unresolved the future treatment of the wall lost in 2023.
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