Fences between Running Lines

[DynamicSpirit]

Abbey Wood station has a fence separating the SouthEastern and Elizabeth Line trains - which has always struck me as a bit pointless now the lines are in use, and also seems unusual as I hadn't been aware of any other station that has fences between adjacent passenger tracks. I can see that the fence would have been important to protect construction workers while the Elizabeth line was still being built, so I've wondered whether it's just a hangover from construction that no-one could be bothered to remove?

Then yesterday I was at Stratford and noticed that that station has something similar - a fence between the Westbound Elizabeth and Eastbound Central Line tracks - which also seems pointless. So now I'm wondering what the purpose of these fences are? And do any other stations have similar fences?

 

[PGAT]

My guess is that it helps minimise disruption. If tree or debris were to obstruct one pair of tracks the fence could potentially protect the other pair.

 

[edwin_m]

I'd guess so one line can be under maintenance without staff being exposed to hazards from the other one, such as train movements. Also staff working on EL probably aren't trained in hazards of third rail and those on Southeastern not trained in the hazards of OLE.

 

[172007]

Midland Metro and Snow Hill lines is fenced except a half mile ish section at the Jewellery Quarter. I have come across members of the public walking from a Tram along the ballast 10 meters and no fence from me at line speed. Always seems strange for there to be no line block when de tramming at that point. Any other places where Network Rail has no fence at all anywhere let alone and urban area?

 

[James H]

Abbey Wood station has a fence separating the SouthEastern and Elizabeth Line trains - which has always struck me as a bit pointless now the lines are in use, and also seems unusual as I hadn't been aware of any other station that has fences between adjacent passenger tracks. I can see that the fence would have been important to protect construction workers while the Elizabeth line was still being built, so I've wondered whether it's just a hangover from construction that no-one could be bothered to remove?

Surely in the specific case of Abbey Wood the fence is because it's the boundary between different infrastructure owners / managers - NR and Rail for London

 

[DynamicSpirit]

My guess is that it helps minimise disruption. If tree or debris were to obstruct one pair of tracks the fence could potentially protect the other pair.

Wouldn't the fence potentially make things worse in that case? If debris or a tree fell on the tracks it might also bring part of the fence down and then you have a much bigger task clearing it all. ( Not that there are any trees at those particular stations anyway)

 

[Horizon22]

I'd guess so one line can be under maintenance without staff being exposed to hazards from the other one, such as train movements. Also staff working on EL probably aren't trained in hazards of third rail and those on Southeastern not trained in the hazards of OLE.

Yes, that’s a practical reason. It also helps demarcate boundaries. You see one down the side of the DLR going Westbound from Stratford too and there’s a little fence approaching Paddington where TfL/RfLis infrastructure starts also.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Think I'm right in saying that the Manchester Metrolink system is partly fenced off from the heavy rail network which it parallels for a short distance just to the North of (Manchester) Victoria station. Perhaps @507 001 can confirm.

Unless mistaken, that's not the case though, in the vicinity of Navigation Road / Altrincham stations.

 

[BantamMenace]

Crossgates station east of leeds has a fence between the running lines presumably to deter people from crossing the tracks as oppose to the long walk around

 

[snowball]

Think I'm right in saying that the Manchester Metrolink system is partly fenced off from the heavy rail network which it parallels for a short distance just to the North of (Manchester) Victoria station. Perhaps @507 001 can confirm.

At the time of this video was taken (going north out of Victoria, see on the right from 9:15) there was at first no fence, then a scrappy temporary fence . After a short time the routes start to separate in level for Metrolink to dive under the main line.

 

[edwin_m]

Nottingham tram is fully fenced from the main line, but Birkbeck to Beckenham on London Trams has no fence.

 

[PGAT]

Nottingham tram is fully fenced from the main line, but Birkbeck to Beckenham on London Trams has no fence.

There are fences at each of the intermediate stops between Birkbeck and Beckenham

 

[pokemonsuper9]

There's a very small "fence" where the metrolink meets NR North of Rochdale.

 

[topydre]

There is a fence between the Vale of Rheidol and Cambrian Main Line between Llanbadarn and Aberystwyth (well, until the bit where there's a ditch between the two lines and no fence is neccesary). Both were BR until VoR privatisation in 1989. The million dollar question from the viewpoint of this thread is whether the fence predates privatisation or not...

 

[507 001]

Think I'm right in saying that the Manchester Metrolink system is partly fenced off from the heavy rail network which it parallels for a short distance just to the North of (Manchester) Victoria station. Perhaps @507 001 can confirm.

Unless mistaken, that's not the case though, in the vicinity of Navigation Road / Altrincham stations.

There was a temporary fence for a while, but it was only for the purpose of engineering work.

Our Metrolink PTS covers us for the sections where we run alongside NR, but nowhere else.

 

[plugwash]

Abbey Wood station has a fence separating the SouthEastern and Elizabeth Line trains - which has always struck me as a bit pointless now the lines are in use, and also seems unusual as I hadn't been aware of any other station that has fences between adjacent passenger tracks.

IIRC there are some fences between HS1 and MML tracks at St pancras, though I don't think they are continuous.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

IIRC there are some fences between HS1 and MML tracks at St pancras, though I don't think they are continuous.

I'm not that familiar with St Pancras, but I'd expect that uniquely they would want fences in any areas through which passengers might otherwise be physically capable of getting to the Eurostar platforms because of immigration control: You don't want anyone reaching a Eurostar train without going through passport control first.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

IIRC there are some fences between HS1 and MML tracks at St pancras, though I don't think they are continuous.

There is a fence between the SE Highspeed and Eurostar, which ends beyond the end of the Eurostar platforms, the fence doesn't look like it has any wires between it but there's a lot of connecting wires, they're just very small.

 

[YorksLad12]

Wakefield Kirkgate now has a green, metal fence between part of platforms 1 and 2 (at the western end).

Rotherham Central has, and the new Magna tram train stop will have, fencing between the tracks. This is to stop people walking across the tracks between the two tram train platforms; a regular activity on the tram network, unsurprisingly much less safe on the heavy rail network.

 

[HSTEd]

Fences will make maintenance tasking much simpler in the modern era.

Indeed I suppose that, ideally, every single running line would be fenced from the others. But no way we can fit that into the existing infrastructure

 

[SynthD]

I believe it reduces the distance needed between workers and an active line?

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's common in mainland Europe to discourage people from walking across, which until very recently was considered acceptable even if signage prohibited it.

 

[CarrotPie]

It's common in mainland Europe to discourage people from walking across, which until very recently was considered acceptable even if signage prohibited it.

But that's because it's common to do so (correctly) in Europe.

 

[JKF]

It's common in mainland Europe to discourage people from walking across, which until very recently was considered acceptable even if signage prohibited it.

Still very acceptable in Portugal, and a lot of stations have barrow way type crossing with colour light signals which are often ignored, even on fast lines. In many places on the North Line they’ve got rid of vehicle crossings and built steeply graded bridges across the line, but the old crossings are still available for pedestrians/cyclists. I guess the thinking is that hitting a person is unlikely to endanger a train whereas a car would likely cause a derailment. There’s also sections of 125mph line adjacent to roads with no fencing whatsoever (E.g. https://earth.app.goo.gl/3JmNvN )