Javelin_55
Member
Hi all, apologies if this has been answered before, but can't see anything on a general search.
My local station is Littlehaven in West Sussex. The station has an MCB crossing at the north end which, once lowered, provides no access to the other side for pedestrians whatsoever. No footbridge, underpass, barrow crossing - nothing.
Yesterday the barriers were lowered at 10:20 for the fast Up service to London, which passed 10:22. They stayed lowered for the fast Down train coming into Horsham that passed 10:24. Then the barriers continued to be held down for the stopping Thameslink Up service which arrived 10:28 and departed 10:29. The Up platform is most heavily used by the locals, but many are located on the Down side. In this example, unless you crossed the road nine minutes before the train was due, you were trapped on the wrong side. Yesterday I saw a large number of frustrated people watch their train arrive and then depart without them on it, despite having got there in what would be considered good time at any other station. The spacing of the fast and stopping services mean this is a regular occurrence, and I must confess to being surprised no other access has been implemented. Apart from the station serving ~227,000 passengers last year, the new secondary school which has been built north of Horsham means in the peak hours there are hundreds of kids walking down that road. On occasions when the barriers have failed and crowds have built up, I've seen some push their way through and cross anyway.
This got me wondering how many other examples there are of this arrangement. I've been to numerous other stations with full barriers in the South East and I'm struggling to think of many others where you're stuck on one side for the duration. Pevensey Bay springs to mind, but with only nine stopping services currently per day, I imagine it has far less of an impact.
Additionally I've been trying to locate a Rail User Group that represents the area but haven't found any - does anyone know if one exists?
My local station is Littlehaven in West Sussex. The station has an MCB crossing at the north end which, once lowered, provides no access to the other side for pedestrians whatsoever. No footbridge, underpass, barrow crossing - nothing.
Yesterday the barriers were lowered at 10:20 for the fast Up service to London, which passed 10:22. They stayed lowered for the fast Down train coming into Horsham that passed 10:24. Then the barriers continued to be held down for the stopping Thameslink Up service which arrived 10:28 and departed 10:29. The Up platform is most heavily used by the locals, but many are located on the Down side. In this example, unless you crossed the road nine minutes before the train was due, you were trapped on the wrong side. Yesterday I saw a large number of frustrated people watch their train arrive and then depart without them on it, despite having got there in what would be considered good time at any other station. The spacing of the fast and stopping services mean this is a regular occurrence, and I must confess to being surprised no other access has been implemented. Apart from the station serving ~227,000 passengers last year, the new secondary school which has been built north of Horsham means in the peak hours there are hundreds of kids walking down that road. On occasions when the barriers have failed and crowds have built up, I've seen some push their way through and cross anyway.
This got me wondering how many other examples there are of this arrangement. I've been to numerous other stations with full barriers in the South East and I'm struggling to think of many others where you're stuck on one side for the duration. Pevensey Bay springs to mind, but with only nine stopping services currently per day, I imagine it has far less of an impact.
Additionally I've been trying to locate a Rail User Group that represents the area but haven't found any - does anyone know if one exists?