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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2012 15:47:40 GMT
I witnessed a strange event at Horton Road level crossing at 3.35pm today (Wednesday). I think that it must have been caused by technical difficulties.
I was in the queue of cars on the Derby Road side, and the flashing lights went off and the barriers went up. We all moved forward but, after only a few seconds, it became clear that something wasn't right. One of the exit barriers either hadn't risen at all or had come straight back down, trapping a lot of pedestrians on the crossing. This was on the other side of the road to me. They had to come around the barrier to get off the crossing. By this time, the red lights were flashing again. Luckily, the first car in the queue on the other side had stayed put. Cars on my side kept going through tentatively, till the driver in front of me sensibly decided to stay put. Then the sirens sounded for a few seconds and the other three barriers came down.
We were stuck there for another fifteen minutes, so there were massive tailbacks by the time that the barriers were lifted again.
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Post by Joe K on Oct 17, 2012 18:24:04 GMT
It must be at least ten years ago that I mentioned my 're-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic' theory on the Gloucestershire Boards, and I'd been ruminating on it for years before that. It's not a genius theory, just an observation that keeping modern life ticking over is probably trickier than it looks, and all the activities of the public and private sector at most help to disguise the fact that things are slowly falling apart, and that this may be 'the big one', the one where no significant 'boom' comes along to let us fix things. The end of civilisation as we know it... Scrapping the libraries hardly fills me with confidence, for a start. Guess it won't matter when the lights go out if there's nothing to read...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2013 14:15:16 GMT
The state of the road surface at Horton Road level crossing is appalling. I'm going to complain to Network Rail.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2013 14:27:47 GMT
I filled in an online complaint form, but there was an error in processing it, so I think that I'll put in a FoI request instead!
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Post by Joe K on Aug 3, 2013 14:42:50 GMT
The crossing itself is extremely bumpy for bicycles, and none to great for cars with dodgy exhausts either.
I can never understand why people don't park on both sides of our end of the crossing, as there are no restrictive lines of any kind. People don't usually use their common sense without being told to. They'll park next to a zebra crossing, after all...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2013 14:18:45 GMT
The crossing is also bumpy for cars with small wheels. My car doesn't normally have any problems, even over speed bumps, so the bumpiness of Horton Road level crossing is Network Rail's fault. I assume that it is even worse for cars with those low profile tyres.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2013 17:27:43 GMT
Despite the error message that I received online, it turned out that my original question did get through to Network Rail. I received a phone call from them this afternoon, informing me that the crossing is due for major work...next Easter! They consider that the road surface is currently perfectly acceptable. This could be one for the local rag, when I get around to it.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2013 13:00:18 GMT
This afternoon I saw yet another idiot motorist drive across the crossing at breakneck speed long after the lights had started flashing red. He can't have been too bothered about being fined or damaging his suspension.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2013 16:30:50 GMT
Notices have just gone up on either side of the crossing, warning that it will be closed on 1st September. Can it be that my complaints have actually caused Network Rail to think again about the state of the crossing? Here's hoping.
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Post by Joe K on Aug 26, 2013 14:18:06 GMT
Here's hoping, but they were messing about with one of the barriers last week, so it might be that.
I rush the lights sometimes, but only when I'm about ten or so metres away. It's a pain the way they leave them down so long on occasion. You can wait five minute or more between trains when they might have let a few cars through...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2013 15:55:52 GMT
The response to my FoI request was quite different to the one that I received to my online request. Network Rail is now saying that they will be repairing the level crossing, including the tarmac, on 1st September 2013. The lights and barriers will be replaced next Easter.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2013 17:22:04 GMT
The absolute lying scumbags! I've just driven across the level crossing, and it's even worse than it was before the 'improvements'. Something will definitely have to be done. It would be fine for a farm track, but Horton Road/Derby Road is a busy road.
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Post by Joe K on Sept 4, 2013 21:44:29 GMT
It ought to be a simple matter of filling in the narrow gaps level with the rails. I hadn't realised they were supposed to have done it. If only a special interest group would raise it. There used to be that 'Railfriend', IIRC, on the boards...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2013 12:49:01 GMT
Yes, the level of the tarmac is far too low. It really shouldn't be a major job to just lay some new, good quality tarmac there.
When I passed by on foot this morning, there were nine, yes nine, rail workers standing around by the crossing. I have absolutely no idea what they were supposed to be doing, but they did nothing for the few minutes that I observed them. When I passed by again, just after noon, there were two workers struggling to climb over one of those spiky-topped palisade security fences around the Horton Road depot, right next to a gate. Someone had obviously lost the key.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2014 15:58:49 GMT
As you pointed out (on the wrong thread), the level crossing has been properly re-jigged. I drove over it last week and noticed the difference. It's only a year since I complained to them...
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