A student texted university friends just before he ended his own life on a train track, an inquest has heard.

Jake Cowley, of Old Mill Close, Burley-in-Wharfedale, died close to Ilkley Railway Station on June 30 last year as the final train of the night was about to pull into the town.

The 20-year-old, who had appeared from bushes at the side of the track, was seen too late by the train driver. The inquest heard how the driver had slammed on the emergency brakes but could not stop what happened next.

Leeds Metropolitan University student Mr Cowley, also known as Jake Jarvis, died instantly from non-survivable injuries. Tests after his death showed he had recently used cannabis but had not been under the influence of the drug at the time he died.

Bradford assistant deputy coroner Tim Ratcliffe said, despite his texts to friends, none of them had expected he would do anything to end his life.

“Neither did his mother,” said Mr Ratcliffe, who added he “fully understood” why Mr Cowley’s family had not wished to attend the inquest.

“It would be very painful for them to face,” he said.

Evidence had been taken into account from three university friends, two British Transport Police officers, the train driver and Mr Cowley’s mother Jackie Threapleton.

The student had left several sheets of notes which were found later in his university flat, the inquest heard.

The notes, although indicating Mr Cowley suffered low self-esteem and had sometime before considered another way of ending his life, gave no specific reason why he had wished to harm himself that day.

But they did intimate he had planned his final actions “quite deliberately,” said Mr Ratcliffe, whose verdict was that Mr Cowley had taken his own life.

The text messages sent by Mr Cowley to his fellow students were “not inconsistent” with the notes left, he said.

e-mail: kathie.griffiths@telegraphandargus.co.uk