Public rights of way across stations [Discussion of the day (DotD) - 17.3.2020]

[whole diary]

[grahame]

When a public right of way crosses a station ... the old and the new way of doing it





I find myself wondering at just how many pedestrians use that brand new bridge each day.

[CyclingSid]

As I cycle between the Cow Lane bridges in Reading, on the Tilehurst Triangle NR^» (Network Rail - home page) site there are various sets of green steps for new bridges. Plans cut short, or emergency stock?

[grahame]

As I cycle between the Cow Lane bridges in Reading, on the Tilehurst Triangle NR^» (Network Rail - home page) site there are various sets of green steps for new bridges. Plans cut short, or emergency stock?

Ssshhhh - don't tell the people of Pilning!

[TonyN]

One of them will be the Footbridge originaly intended for Reading west. This was not installed for reasons unknown to me but someone on the forum may be able to answer.
It is now intended to use the footbridge at Pershore subject to ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) approval.
This will allow access to the new car park on the north side of the line.
Approval is needed because the bridge does not include disabled access. It is intended to use the existing car park on the same side as the platform as a disabled car park.

[Marlburian]

When I saw the thread title, I immediately thought of the footbridge at Patney & Chirton station, near Devizes - and Grahame's first image was of it! I suspect that it may have had some justification when the station was used by troops de- and en-training for manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain. The right of way merely cuts off the "dog's leg" over the road bridge.

There's a similar situation just west of the site of Uffington Station. I used it last summer on a walk, having dithered about how to access it through Moor Hill Farm. There was a wonky "public footpath" sign on the roadside, but it wasn't clear how to find one's way through the farm buildings.

There's also an elaborate bridge over the M4 just north of Theale, which I use occasionally to get to Englefield (but not at the moment - the approach from Tilehurst is sometimes waterlogged.) On either side the footway has several spirals, and I am not alone in wondering why steps would not suffice. It's too narrow for farm vehicles except those over-sized go-kart thingies. Possibly the aim is to make life easier for horses?

[Reading General]

There's also an elaborate bridge over the M4 just north of Theale, which I use occasionally to get to Englefield (but not at the moment - the approach from Tilehurst is sometimes waterlogged.) On either side the footway has several spirals, and I am not alone in wondering why steps would not suffice. It's too narrow for farm vehicles except those over-sized go-kart thingies. Possibly the aim is to make life easier for horses?

Yes that is odd. There is another down at Swindon.

There is a public right of way across a closed and track lifted station, on the Diddy, Newbury and Southampton at Compton. The path runs straight onto the platform and across what was the tracks, which is now filled in and a lawn. I believe a footbridge was provided here because of the public right of way rather than to access the opposite platform and I've a feeling it survived quite a long time beyond the line being lifted. Certainly the first time I discovered Compton station (and the rest of the line between Didcot and Newbury) as a teenager in the late 80's, Compton station was all but complete except for tracks. I cannot recall if the footbridge was still there though for some reason.

[eightonedee]

Certainly the first time I discovered Compton station (and the rest of the line between Didcot and Newbury) as a teenager in the late 80's, Compton station was all but complete except for tracks. I cannot recall if the footbridge was still there though for some reason.
{like}

My recollection from starting to use it as the starting point of walks up the track bed all the way to Lower Chance at Churn (long since rendered impossible by growth of vegetation) in the late 1970s is that there was no footbridge by that time.

[Reading General]

Certainly the first time I discovered Compton station (and the rest of the line between Didcot and Newbury) as a teenager in the late 80's, Compton station was all but complete except for tracks. I cannot recall if the footbridge was still there though for some reason.
{like}

My recollection from starting to use it as the starting point of walks up the track bed all the way to Lower Chance at Churn (long since rendered impossible by growth of vegetation) in the late 1970s is that there was no footbridge by that time.

Probably why I don’t remember it then. I’m sure I’ve seen a colour photo of the footbridge in place but the line long gone.

We also walked sections of it that way, all the way up to the platform at Churn ( still traceable a few years back) and along the Chilton cutting, large parts of which are now filled in!

[Bmblbzzz]

I'm rather fond of the footbridge on or near Ram Hill or Coalpit Heath station.

[grahame]

Fron the Gazette and Herald (5 years ago) - another footbridge over a station site being replaced - essential work for electrification that has itself proven to be less than essential to complete.

NETWORK Rail’s ‘orange army’ replaced a footbridge in Corsham at the weekend, using a 500-tonne crane to lift the new bridge over a block of flats and into position.

And this time-lapse photography was used to create this stunning video, showing what happened and the scale of the project.

The replacement of the footbridge between The Cleeve and Pound Mead is an essential part of Network Rail’s £7.5bn Great Western Electrification Programme.

The new bridge is higher, creating the additional space needed for the overhead wires that will power a new fleet of electric trains to run underneath. These trains are longer, faster, quieter and greener, benefitting passengers and those who live close to the railway line.

There's also the public footbridge over Chippenham Station - another fine example of a public right of way across a station, renewed 2015 for opening 2016.  Trains don't run on electricity under that one yet, either.

Do I recall comment that Sheffield station is / was unbarriered because of a pubic right of way over the station footbridge?

[eightonedee]

Do I recall comment that Sheffield station is / was unbarriered because of a pubic right of way over the station footbridge?

How quickly we forget....

Prior to its reconstruction, Reading had the bizarre barrier splitting the  footbridge from the car park across the station into two "lanes"- one side behind the gate line, the other open to public access. Not sure if it was formally a public right of way on the open side, but it was open to all.

[stuving]

Do I recall comment that Sheffield station is / was unbarriered because of a pubic right of way over the station footbridge?

How quickly we forget....

Prior to its reconstruction, Reading had the bizarre barrier splitting the  footbridge from the car park across the station into two "lanes"- one side behind the gate line, the other open to public access. Not sure if it was formally a public right of way on the open side, but it was open to all.

The wall dividing the footbridge is fairly new - before that it was all open to passengers and passers-through. It was installing gatelines around the whole station that meant the wall was needed, of course, and no I can't remember when that was (but less than 20 years ago).

[eightonedee]

Thanks Stuving - as I peer back into the recesses of my memory, might I be imagining that before the 1980s works to the station you could get all the way under the station from the old bus station under the Top Rank to the north side of the station behind the signal works? Was the "new" 1980s footbridge a diverted right of way when the northern end of the old underpass was closed (and, in due course, the tunnel under Station Hill)?

Reading local historians out there - can you help please?

[stuving]

There's a whole load of different approaches to this. Guildford's internal footbridge climbs a slope and then steps to the hillside on the west, with a station entrance for the side of town near the University and cathedral. Both entrances have barriers, and I think they still used a pass system - ask for one on entry, and hand it in on exit, or maybe regulars get a permanent one. I've never had call to use it.

That crosses the sidings as well as the station, so is quite long: well over 100 m. There's an even longer one at Earley, which isn't quite over the station but also crosses the A3290 (a "motorway") and two strips of land next to it. It provides access for Woodley, and I used it a couple of times,  but its northern entrance is awkwardly placed for Woodley Centre, since there would only be a direct walking route if it wasn't for the houses in between. 

[Reading General]

Thanks Stuving - as I peer back into the recesses of my memory, might I be imagining that before the 1980s works to the station you could get all the way under the station from the old bus station under the Top Rank to the north side of the station behind the signal works? Was the "new" 1980s footbridge a diverted right of way when the northern end of the old underpass was closed (and, in due course, the tunnel under Station Hill)?

Reading local historians out there - can you help please?

As I recall from the early 90's, after the rebuild you could still walk from the bus station under the platforms to the signal works side, Subway Road, this was of course the Royal Mail delivery office by then. The bus station end was a separate tunnel entered from the station subway through a pair of plain doors with no windows in them. Once inside this tunnel and the door closed behind you, you would move pretty quickly as it wasn't a very pleasant place to hang around with no natural light. Once the bus station stopped being used (a year or so after Reading Transport took over the remaining Beeline bus routes) that entrance was closed but you could still enter the double level underground car park where Reading's homeless community of that period lived, this was via the tunnel that used to go to the bus station but was now eerily dark at one end and you would move even quicker. At the signal works end of the subway, you could also turn right towards the multi-storey car park, following a narrow passage past the panel box and down a metal staircase that was immediately under the 80's rebuild footbridge, a seldom used route by many. When the barriers arrived, the car park entrance, the two street stair entrances on either side of Station Approach and the Subway Road entrance were closed up, a set of fire exit doors ended either end of the subway.