Drivers risked lives during barriers failure near Romsey - 4 January 2012

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Southern Daily Echo:

Police were called out to stop impatient motorists from driving across two unmanned level crossings after the automated half-barriers failed.

Drivers were reported to be zig-gagging around the half-barriers at Mottisfont and Dunbridge station level crossing and the level crossing at Kimbridge, near Romsey.

Both sets of barriers failed at about 2.35pm on Wednesday. Police took swift action to prevent an accident happening after being contacted by the public and Network Rail.

A Hampshire police spokesman said: ^We had reports of motorists driving around the barriers at both level crossings.^

Train drivers using the Salisbury to Southampton line were told to negotiate both crossings at slow speeds until the issue was resolved.

A Network Rail spokesman said: ^We contacted Hampshire police to ask them to manage the traffic at both crossings until our team arrived. There was an external power failure and this tripped circuits at the barrier and staff had to reset all the equipment. The barriers were operating again at about 4.10pm.^

[Chris from Nailsea]

A follow up, from the Southern Daily Echo:

Fix level crossing barriers in Dunbridge 'before someone gets killed'



Drivers are risking their lives by zigzagging around faulty barriers at two level crossings in Hampshire. Frustrated motorists are driving around the halfbarriers at the crossings when they get stuck in the down position, despite the threat of oncoming trains.

Motorists can be left waiting up to 20 minutes before engineers turn up to fix the barriers. Police have even been called out to control traffic at Mottisfont & Dunbridge Station level crossing and nearby Kimbridge level crossing when the automatic half-barriers fail.

Now local community leaders are calling on rail bosses to fix the barriers before someone is killed.

Network Rail says the issue is being investigated by the Office of Rail Regulation. A spokesman said: ^The recent level crossing failures at Mottisfont & Dunbridge and Kimbridge have been caused primarily by either a problem with the equipment on the track or as a result of a problem with the external electricity supply which powers the crossing equipment.^

The rail company said it would look at replacing the signalling in the area ^ or even finding other routes or ways of crossing the railway.

This comes after the Daily Echo investigation prompted the rail company to review crossing times following a string of near misses linked to barriers coming down too fast.

Now Mottisfont Parish Council chairman John Millns has written to the rail regulator, urging them to act immediately to avert a tragedy. He said: ^Sooner or later, there is almost certainly going to be a pile-up at one of these level crossings. There is the potential for a serious incident, especially if there is a simultaneous failure at both crossings, which has happened on a number of occasions in the past few weeks.^

He also warned with the B3084 closed at Greatbridge because of work being carried out on the rail bridge, there was no alternative route for drivers to take if both level crossings fail at the same time.