Lidlington Level Crossing - Road Closure Wrongly Lifted

[MadCommuter]

Lidlington level crossing probe after road closure wrongly lifted

Central Bedfordshire Council says the Marston Road road closure was "inadvertently removed".

www.bbc.co.uk

An investigation is under way to look at how traffic was allowed to cross a faulty railway level crossing after a road closure was removed.
Traffic had been stopped from crossing the Bedford to Bletchley Line at the Marston Road crossing near Lidlington in Bedfordshire for several weeks.
Central Bedfordshire Council said a Highway Services team "inadvertently removed" the closure on 18 May.
It is investigating what "allowed such a serious event to occur", it said.
The BBC understands the closure was reinstated "several hours later".
The authority said the closure had been in place on Marston Road between Lidlington and Marston Morteyene to protect the public at the site of a faulty Network Rail level crossing.
It added that "immediate steps" had been taken to ensure that any instructions relating to work affecting Network Rail's infrastructure, are "subject to increased oversight".
A spokesman said: "[The council] takes safety extremely seriously and is undertaking a detailed investigation, with our Term Maintenance Contractor (TMC), to determine where there was a failure in processes that allowed such a serious event to occur.
"We are in contact with Network Rail and local ward members, who are being kept up to date.
"Once concluded, appropriate relevant and permanent changes can be made to processes and procedures to ensure that the lessons learned are translated to improvements in how we undertake our work on the highway network."


Any further details available? Even if the council's contractor wrongly opened the road, surely there would have been traffic management measures at the crossing itself to guard against local road users within the closure?

 

[DarloRich]

Absolutely incredible. Someone really dropped the ball.

 

[greatkingrat]

Perhaps another question is why is it taking so long to fix? The road had been closed for several weeks before the incident, and if Google Maps is correct it still appears to be closed now.

 

[43066]

Lidlington level crossing probe after road closure wrongly lifted

Central Bedfordshire Council says the Marston Road road closure was "inadvertently removed".

www.bbc.co.uk

An investigation is under way to look at how traffic was allowed to cross a faulty railway level crossing after a road closure was removed.
Traffic had been stopped from crossing the Bedford to Bletchley Line at the Marston Road crossing near Lidlington in Bedfordshire for several weeks.
Central Bedfordshire Council said a Highway Services team "inadvertently removed" the closure on 18 May.
It is investigating what "allowed such a serious event to occur", it said.
The BBC understands the closure was reinstated "several hours later".
The authority said the closure had been in place on Marston Road between Lidlington and Marston Morteyene to protect the public at the site of a faulty Network Rail level crossing.
It added that "immediate steps" had been taken to ensure that any instructions relating to work affecting Network Rail's infrastructure, are "subject to increased oversight".
A spokesman said: "[The council] takes safety extremely seriously and is undertaking a detailed investigation, with our Term Maintenance Contractor (TMC), to determine where there was a failure in processes that allowed such a serious event to occur.
"We are in contact with Network Rail and local ward members, who are being kept up to date.
"Once concluded, appropriate relevant and permanent changes can be made to processes and procedures to ensure that the lessons learned are translated to improvements in how we undertake our work on the highway network."


Any further details available? Even if the council's contractor wrongly opened the road, surely there would have been traffic management measures at the crossing itself to guard against local road users within the closure?

On the face of it a shocking display of negligence by someone.

 

[al78]

Perhaps another question is why is it taking so long to fix? The road had been closed for several weeks before the incident, and if Google Maps is correct it still appears to be closed now.

I've often asked the same question with roadworks around the Horsham District. Fannying about seems to be the in thing these days.

 

[skyhigh]

As far as I can tell the crossing in question is an Automatic Half Barrier. Wonder if the barriers were left in the lowered position (though obviously being half barriers they wouldn't fully block the road). I guess it depends exactly how the crossing was faulty as to the level of risk here, though clearly this was not a good situation.

 

[BekiG]

I live in the village. The barriers were up and all road cones etc were removed. I drove over the crossing myself. The trains are moving reasonably slowly as they have just pulled out of the station, but it could have been a nasty accident. The barriers have been close for months and no end to the works in sight. It's a nightmare, we have to use a tiny, almost single track road to get in and out and so does any HGV - accident waiting to happen

Lidlington level crossing probe after road closure wrongly lifted

Central Bedfordshire Council says the Marston Road road closure was "inadvertently removed".

www.bbc.co.uk

An investigation is under way to look at how traffic was allowed to cross a faulty railway level crossing after a road closure was removed.
Traffic had been stopped from crossing the Bedford to Bletchley Line at the Marston Road crossing near Lidlington in Bedfordshire for several weeks.
Central Bedfordshire Council said a Highway Services team "inadvertently removed" the closure on 18 May.
It is investigating what "allowed such a serious event to occur", it said.
The BBC understands the closure was reinstated "several hours later".
The authority said the closure had been in place on Marston Road between Lidlington and Marston Morteyene to protect the public at the site of a faulty Network Rail level crossing.
It added that "immediate steps" had been taken to ensure that any instructions relating to work affecting Network Rail's infrastructure, are "subject to increased oversight".
A spokesman said: "[The council] takes safety extremely seriously and is undertaking a detailed investigation, with our Term Maintenance Contractor (TMC), to determine where there was a failure in processes that allowed such a serious event to occur.
"We are in contact with Network Rail and local ward members, who are being kept up to date.
"Once concluded, appropriate relevant and permanent changes can be made to processes and procedures to ensure that the lessons learned are translated to improvements in how we undertake our work on the highway network."


Any further details available? Even if the council's contractor wrongly opened the road, surely there would have been traffic management measures at the crossing itself to guard against local road users within the closure?

There was nothing. Barriers up and no cones etc. I drove over the crossing as I live in the village. We were all overjoyed as we assumed the barriers had been fixed. It is taking months and months to fix them.

 

[MadCommuter]

There was nothing. Barriers up and no cones etc. I drove over the crossing as I live in the village. We were all overjoyed as we assumed the barriers had been fixed. It is taking months and months to fix them.

Thanks for the confirmation - I had assumed / hoped the media had used a bit of dramatic license, but seemingly not.