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Trivia: Level crossings that are unlikely to ever be removed

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PTR 444

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It is endeavoured that as many level crossings as possible should be closed permanently to improve safety and reduce congestion. While many have been successfully closed or replaced with a bridge, there are still many where doing so would be problematic or impractical for one of the following reasons:
  • The road passes through a built-up area where building a bridge would require extensive demolition.
  • The road passes through a National park or AONB, and hence permission for a new bridge is unlikely to be granted.
  • The road sees so little traffic that the case for a bridge would be very weak. Same for crossings with only a small handful of train movements per day.
In terms of crossings that are least likely to be removed, I would imagine most of the valid examples would be those in the first two categories. For the third category, the road could alternatively be severed on each side but this would depend on whether there is a suitable alternative route in the vicinity.

I will begin with the level crossing at Brockenhurst. Busy A-road, no suitable alternative route for traffic to divert to and right in the middle of a national park.
 
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ANDREW_D_WEBB

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Bridge Street, Bradford on Avon. River on one side of the road, tunnel on the other. Road is a residential dead end beyond the crossing.

Sheen Lane and White Hart Lane, both east of Mortlake, simply because the land values would be too big to entertain a bridge for either.
 

snowball

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In some areas, such as East Anglia and mid-Wales, there are so many level crossings that you can reasonably predict that some of them will remain for a very long time, even if you can't be certain that any particular one will remain.
 

SteveM70

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The one in the middle of Lincoln, unless they pedestrianise the road
 

norbitonflyer

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Lincoln. Although the High Street is now closed to through traffic it is still available for access to premises outside shopping hours - it also has a heavy pedestrian footfall, despite the footbridge. The Brayford crossing would also be very difficult to replace, although it, like the High Street one, is now on a one way street.
 
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mmh

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Deganwy Station and Deganwy Quay crossings. The only way they'll ever be removed is if the line was closed.
 

Snow1964

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North Sheen station, would require property demolition on south side to allow a road ramp (the property on north side, a Homebase store, is about to be demolished so would be easy to realign road)

I would add others on same line like Mortlake, due to too much property
 

ANDREW_D_WEBB

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The one in the middle of Lincoln, unless they pedestrianise the road

High Street, Lincoln is virtually pedestrianised with very limited vehicle access, plus it has a lift equipped footbridge alongside, so could be closed with relatively little inconvenience. On a recent visit I was surprised how busy the line was. One closure lasted over 10 minutes.
 

Darandio

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Red Cow crossing at Exeter is unlikely to depart any time soon.
 

Llanigraham

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Marches Line:
Onibury, due to it's proximity to a road junction, housing and the River Ony road bridge.
Marshbrook, due to it's proximity to the A road, housing and a road junction.
Leominster, as Marshbrook.

Cambrian:
Llanidloes Road, housing, road junction proximity.
Abermewl, housing, industry, road junction proximity.
 

SteveyBee131

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5 within a quarter of a mile either side of Grimsby Town station. All are on busy town centre streets with no space for an alternative due to the area being heavily built up.

EDIT: beaten to it! :lol:
 

Meglos

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Sheen Lane and White Hart Lane, both east of Mortlake, simply because the land values would be too big to entertain a bridge for either.
You can add Vine Road in Barnes just after the Hounslow loop splits from the Richmond line. A double crossing where it's extremely rare to get across both crossings without getting caught by at least one of them. Any bridge would be at least 100M long, and would prevent access to the Vine Road Recreation Ground. As a child I remember it being operated as two manually operated crossings.

Also West Barnes Lane (twice) once in Raynes Park and once again at Motspur Park station. Both due to lack of space.
 

geoffk

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Smithy Bridge, near Rochdale, where the road rises across the railway then over the adjacent canal. The gradient of the road and proximity of the canal in a built-up area would rule out both a bridge and an underpass. It would be hard to justify a bypass and hard to see where it would go without demolition.

The crossing on the north side of Paignton station would be another.
 

32475

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St Dunstans in Canterbury adjacent to Canterbury West station.

Richborough Road level crossing just outside Sandwich. If a bridge was built to replace it, it would hit the underside of the road viaduct which carries the A256 over the railway and the River Stour!
 
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Acfb

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Furness Vale.

Kingsknowe would be problematic as well as it is next to the union canal.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Dodworth. Now that the bypass has opened (getting on for a decade ago now) road traffic is minimal, so it probably isn't worth removing the crossing unless there's a spate of misuse, or if the long-term aim of a second hourly service is ever met. Though I suppose with the bypass now being open, retention of the through route is less critical, so in theory the crossing could close without the need for a bridge to replace it subject to local objections.
 
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30907

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Cononley.
Not sure about Crosshills (on a far busier road, but would be awkward).
There are some quiet ones East of Knaresborough and on the Scarborough line.
 

sjm77

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Bridlington Quay & Filey. Both built up areas but with road junctions very close to the Level Crossing itself. Also the very low speed that trains cross at reduces the risk and the seriousness of any potential 'encounter'.
 

Nova1

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Not sure why but this crossing just off Chartham station has been there a while and for some reason won't be going anytime soon. Might be due to the close proximity to houses and the very limited visibility approaching the crossing.

1630620703630.png
It's a personal favorite of mine, when I was a little kid living here the operator in the signal box let me pull the levers a few times :)
 

mmh

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I think we've proved there are countless ones which will never be removed. Coincidentally, I will shortly be campaigning for NR to reopen a foot crossing they illegally closed. I will start a new thread for that though :)
 

Ant158

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Low Moor level crossing in Clitheroe, Lancashire. The only way they’d could close that one permanently would be to build a link road to the A59 from that side of Clitheroe.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Marches Line:
Onibury, due to it's proximity to a road junction, housing and the River Ony road bridge.
Marshbrook, due to it's proximity to the A road, housing and a road junction.
Leominster, as Marshbrook.

Cambrian:
Llanidloes Road, housing, road junction proximity.
Abermewl, housing, industry, road junction proximity.
At least the A49 now bypasses Leominster to the east of the railway, so it's just town traffic that's left.

Further north, I can't see the crossings at Gobowen and Wrexham being closed.
Gobowen's is between the station and signal box in the middle of the village, and Wrexham's is next to Croes Newydd North Fork box in a heavily built up area, some of it hospital premises.
The retention of a good many remaining manual signal boxes is determined by the need to control an adjacent un-closeable level crossing.

I wonder how long those level crossings of the 4/5/6-track ECML north of Peterborough will last?
 

RPI

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Red Cow crossing at Exeter is unlikely to depart any time soon.
Was going to say this, whilst sat there last night waiting for 3 trains to cross i was looking around designing an alternative in my head.... and there isn't one, seems impossible to replace.

Eggesford another, surprised there aren't more pile ups when a car is waiting to turn right over the crossing whilst waiting for a train to pass.

The three in close proximity between Camborne and Redruth.

Lostwithiel

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