Project Wareham

I saw a reference to this on facebook, 'Save our railway crossing: Actor Edward Fox says footbridge would be a "blot on town's historic station"'

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/ne...ot_blot_on_town__39_s_historic_station_quot_/

 

I see it made either the Mail or Express as well, which I noticed laying on a table whilst stewarding the DCE yesterday. As I said a few weeks back not sure I will ever see the bridge built in my lifetime.

 

I note that Edward Fox quotes Pool as a good solution. I have seen somewhere that Pool has the worse record for pedestrians ignoring the wig wags and NR would like it closed

 

David R

 

More on the problems at Poole High Street Crossing:

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/ne..._level_crossing___because_it_s_a_safety_risk/

David R

 

Cant let a good story get in the way of actual facts.......the foot crossing at Wareham is not a public right of way. It is leased to the council and the lease expires in 21 years time. When lease expires it will not be renewed and the crossing can be closed. What DCC and NR are trying to do is come up with a solution now rather than wait for 21 years time. Oh and it costs DCC circa £120K pa (120 x 21years = £2,520,000) and any upgrade costs(eg new lights, new warning system etc etc) have to be met by the council. I think a new bridge will cost somewhere between £1M - £2M.

 

Poole High Street crossing is the highest risked crossing in the Wessex Area and the 5th highest in the country.......

 

Does the Wareham service train have to replace the Norden to Worgret token when arriving at Wareham, to allow signals to be cleared for its return journey, or can it be retained during the stop over?

 

Well they certainly open the cabinet and muck about with the token machine, so something must happen. Not being flippant, just did not watch what they were doing.

 

Need to return the token to the machine, then obtain the token again in order to clear signal PW5248 towards the branch.

 

Should that be PW5247? I thought PW5248 was on the up line.

 

How good a story it is depends on the facts accepted as relevant.
My choice are:-
1. Since Network Rail began their campaign to close this crossing in 2008 the relevant legislation on discrimination has become the 2010 Equalities Act.
2. On the websites of both Network Rail and South West Trains, Wareham Station is described as having step free access. This means they include the present foot crossing as part of the station access.
3.Under the 2010 Act all organisations providing a public service are required to make changes to overcome barriers on their premises that put people with disabilities at a disadvantage.
This duty is 'anticipatory' which means that any organisation making changes must think in advance about how people with a range of impairments might be disadvantaged by the proposed changes.

In this case changing a route of one distance which is on the level with another that contains significant gradients and is also significantly longer clearly creates additional difficulties for people who have some difficulty in walking. This happens for a variety of reasons and affects at least 20% of the population, although I have been told by a former SWT manager that they consider that more like 40% are considered as having 'limited mobility'

What is clear is that the dispute between the local community and Network Rail/Dorset CC is based on differing views of how significant a barrier the proposed ramps will be to a high proportion of the users.
It is made much worse by the unwillingness of the staff of both organisations to show any sign that they are listening to the points being made by mature and sensible local people about risk assessment. The risk of using the foot crossing is no greater than that in crossing roads that people will have used on routes to get to the station. However the ramps at busy times will contain a mixture of people travelling at different rates, some in wheelchairs, some on scooters, some with bikes, going up and down a steep gradient. That is certainly not a risk free environment.
The present situation has been created by mistakes made in the past in both Network Rail and Dorset CC, and it now appears that the County Council have postponed yet again making a decision, indicating there is still some difficulty in proceeding. Is it too much to hope that common sense could come to the fore and that serious discussions could start which include the local community to reach agreed solution?

 

Yep, you're quite right; I blame typing my reply on a bloody iPhone and having dyslexic fingers.

 

That, with respect, is a load of rubbish. Roads where pedestrians are about in significant numbers are generally limited to 30 mph and, increasingly, to 20 mph. Are you suggesting a similar speed for approaching trains? Unlike road vehicles, trains cannot stop in a few yards and, being constrained by the rails, cannot be steered to avoid a wayward pedestrian. ORR policy is one of segregation of trains and pedestrian traffic and I'm sure that they know far more about the subject than you or me. It's for exactly the same reasons why Joe Public is not allowed to wander about on and cross motorways.

 

I refer you to my posting #446........they are facts

 

I don't quite understand why it is that the foot crossing seems to mean that the
Swanage trains cannot use the down sidings that are just across it.
The crossing is supervised and the trains coming and going between the platforms
and the sidings would not be anything like fast. How should there be a concern?

 

As an instance of crossing misuse at Poole, I have seen reports of the locals climbing under engineering trains stopped on the crossing during engineering works complete with a signed road closure. On the second weekend HERAS panel fencing was erected along the barrier line at the start of the possession to protect the locals from themselves. "Acting like lemmings" was one of the repeatable comments.
There is a footbridge next to the crossing and a subway under the line 200 yards away.

Cheers, Neil

PS signal numbers. Custom and practice is that odd numbers are used for Down line signals and even numbers on the Up lines. It's not infallible, but is a good starting point in power signalled areas.

 

Because some bright spark put it in the spec for the Poole - Wool resignalling job that the up to down crossover had to be out of use until the foot crossing was closed.

 

Ah - so, perhaps instead of an expensive and controversial footbridge, all that is needed is for some-one to fully risk assess the proposed movements and amend local instructions, with such additional safeguards as are deemed necessary to allow at least these services, which will probably have a greater number of train crew to assist with safely passing the crossing compared with units, and possibly improved visibility, to use the crossover.

Steven

 

Not that it's an issue when running top n tailed (this year) or the DMU (next year) on the regular services.
It's just presumably an issue for steam which would be a few years off I guess.