Bleasby Level Crossing

Monday August 5 2024 at 11.20ish. The 9.10 Crewe to Newark Castle (11.31) train. 10 years ago I made the first video of this crossing • Bleasby Level Crossing Unfortunately, 7 years ago the efficient half barrier crossing was removed by Network Rail, clearly without proper, or indeed any, thought and full barriers were installed at great expense. As a result waiting times here have soared. Instead of the average waiting time of about 20 seconds shown in my 2014 video, waiting times now can be well over 2 minutes. NR of course told the usual porkies about the new crossing being safer and more reliable. Reported failures since disprove the latter and with no accidents here in 178 years it's difficult to see how the crossing is now safer. The Parish Council has an interesting article about the station and crossing on its website. However the statement in its final sentence that the crossing "is much safer now" needs correcting. It perhaps should have fought to keep the half barrier crossing and then had the money saved spent on more stopping trains.
#railroad