Project Wareham

It does seem curious that despite Network Rail amending the ramps proposals for Wareham Station Footbridge to comply with relevant standards, that the local authority planning Dept still refused the ramp planning application.

 

Sorted!

 

Looking at the details, the application was recommended for approval by the planning officers (the planning department) but called into committee, where the local councillors have the opportunity to review the decisions made by the planning officers. If I am correct then the planning department recommended approval but the councillors over-rode that recommendation and decided to refuse the application.

A typical example of councillors doing the populist thing rather than the correct longer-term thing, especially as the application says that NR/SWT could see no other viable solution:
- if the application had been approved (as recommended by the planning officers), then Wareham would have a brand new, safer way of crossing the railway, and access to the sidings would be unrestricted.
However, things now stand:
- the crossing remains in use only until either DCC's lease runs out in 2038 or there is action be ORR to force the closure of the crossing (whichever comes earlier; and
- at that point the only provision will be the existing footbridge and nothing else (unless DCC put in, at their expense, an almost identical bridge to the one they have just refused!).

Thus, the local population will fail to gain the benefit a new means of crossing that NR/SWT were willing to pay for, and will instead end up with no crossing - unless they pay for it through local taxes...

 

NR have a FP LC that is as safe as is reasonably possible due to the attendants being on site and closing the gates 2/3 mins before the train(s) arrive. The attendants are funded by the council and that due to the councils declining the planning application NR will let the lease run and when it expire not renew and then close the crossing.

 

So the signaling for the sidings can not be completed to 2038, which means any movements into Wareham station are limited until then? Does not give much flexability for the Swanage train on which platform at Wareham to drop or collect passengers. And no bay platform. Seems after all the effort gone into this project, by all parties, DCC really should be pulling the stops out to get this issue sorted?

 

There are publicly accessible lifts in other places too. If the lift gets stuck you use the phone to call for assistance, which may arrive in minutes or not for hours. How about keeping the crossing but with gates permanently locked (and too high to climb over) but remotely releasable when, and only when, the lift fails?

 

The strength of local opposition to any form of bridge is very considerable indeed. The issue is quite simply that any solution is inferior, as far as pedestrians and cyclists are concerned, to the current crossing. The people of Wareham do not want a lift or a bridge. Councillors who vote for the proposal may find themselves in an invidious position at local election time and one can well understand why they would not wish to go against the stated wishes of the electorate. Councillors are meant to represent the views of the people in a democratic process.

Two Wareham Town Councillors are members of the Friends of Wareham Station and have previously been members of the Council of Management of the Swanage Railway Trust.

It may be worth also considering that a regular train service between Wareham and Swanage may be of benefit to very few Wareham residents.

 

With the benefit of hindsight, I suppose reinstating the up bay for Swanage - Wareham services would have been a less problematic solution as a refuge for Swanage trains then the sidings.

 

Well I am not sure that it is hindsight because local opposition to the closure of the crossing developed as soon as the proposal was mooted. I am not completely sure but I think the potential issue was highlighted much earlier (not sure the of the exact date) when the road bridge was built, the A351 diverted over it and the original level crossing closed. One could argue that it wasnt exactly clever not including a protected walkway over the bridge when the bridge was first constructed.

Perhaps one could also be critical though of Networks Rail lack of foresight in placing an electrical control box in the middle of the four foot in the up bay rather than on the platform.

It is often said "we are where we are" but sometimes the lack of foresight is astonishing and I feel that this is one of those cases where two (to me obvious) actions could have been taken: 1) including footways in the road bridge 2) protecting the up bay platform for potential future use.

 

When was the bridge built?


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It’s hard for me to believe that the placement of the electrical box in the up bay was an unfortunate oversight.

 

The other thing the Wareham locals will argue is that there is a barriered crossing in the shopping centre in Poole that is not manned. So if it works there then can work in Wareham. This disregards of course it is one of the most abused crossings in the NR SW area.

 

April 1980 apparently. There are pics of the works being undertaken in the waiting room on the up platform at wareham Station.

 

I beg to differ. Foresight never has featured too much in 'rationalisation'. Mind you, the increasingly rare (due to light pollution) firefly loves abandoned ballast. Isn't Wareham Station one of their remaining toe-holds?

 

cock up or conspiracy?

 

As someone who lived in the area at the time, the tragedy at Elsenham is, to me, overwhelming proof as to why crossings should be closed.

 

Put it this way ..... I always rule out 'cock up' before committing any time to hunting down conspiracies. If nothing else, it saves an absolute fortune in tin foil!

 

Poole is a vehicular crossing.....even though situated on a pedestrianised high street used by circa 10000 pedestrians a day

 

Or, in other words, at a time when any plans to reopen the branch, let alone with through running, would have been heroically optimistic.

 

If I remember correctly the Wareham bay platform/s were still intact in 79/80? Not sure when the track was finally lifted.