Thatcham Railway Crossing, £83k wasted! Options

[motormad]

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/2013/road-la...g-will-go-ahead

I agree with Mr Woodhams (surprisingly).

Mr Woodhams said that he believed the road changes would have little impact on congestion.

He said: “From the outset the Thatcham Conservative councillors have been wracking their brains to come up with a new idea to impress motorists and residents, to reduce queueing times at the Thatcham level crossing.

“They have wasted £83,000, and the provision for a right-hand turn lane into the Thatcham sorting office … will have little to no effect on reducing these queues.

This will not reduce congestion. If people want to go into the sorting office they either go around the one-way system and out infront of everyone or just drive down the wrong side of the road. (there's nothing coming anyway).

I used to live 2 minute walk from Thatcham train station. Infact I grew up there and would go into town on the train regularly before I had a car.

A bridge is the only solution and unless they do that, anything will be a waste of money.
The sheer amount of disruption during the roadworks will cause havoc as well.

[spartacus]

How about working up a sensible long term real solution? This should not be considered in isolation. The size of the conurbation means the existing major routes are time expired and overloaded. A bridge, in civil engineering and cost terms is actually quite feasible. That is, if the scheme was designed and planned by civil engineers.

ah yes... The old chestnut of Thatcham level crossing... It's a problem, I accept that.....

But it's not even a B Class road...
It has a 7.5t weight limit on it....
It has relatively restricted width....

.....Yet some people still think that the £30m it would take to build a bridge is just lying around under some WBC mattress and should be released to relieve the burden on commuters sitting in their cars getting frustrated..


As this letter dated 14 May 2013 from WBC pointed out:

"Whilst a bridge would completely remove the current queueing issue there are a number of practical, financial, environmental and aesthetic reasons why a bridge would be very difficult to accommodate.

Given the impending electrification, the current minimum clearance over a rail line is 5.2m. Along with the bridge construction this would mean the total structure height would be 7.2m (over 23.5ft). This would have a significant visual impact on the surrounding environment.

The ramps on the approach to the bridge would be substantial and, given the current highway design standards, in order to achieve the required gradient on the approach, the Pipers Lane/Station Road roundabout would have to be raised by approximately 2.9m (almost 10ft). This in turn would have a knock on effect on the surrounding roads and accesses onto them.

The provision of a bridge would inevitably improve the attractiveness of this route to many road users that currently travel through Newbury or Aldermaston. It is considered that this increase could be significant compared to the number of vehicles currently using the route. This gives rise to concerns about additional air and noise pollution through the residential areas of south Thatcham. It also raises the issue of road safety concerns on Thornford Road and Crookham Hill. It is possible that the provision of a bridge would require a complete upgrade of this route to accommodate the additional traffic at further significant expense.

Any bridge at this location would need to span both the River Kennet and the Canal in addition to the rail line. A study undertaken in 2004 estimated the cost of such a structure at £20 miilion. To raise this level of funding the Council would have to apply to the Department for Transport for Major Scheme funding. Given that this road is not on the strategic road network, and although the local benefits are plain to see, the benefits to the strategic network will be minimal. Indeed the environmental issues associated with the increase in traffic along this route may well cancel out the traffic flow benefits. The proposal would therefore be given low priority against other improvements on the strategic network.

It is for the above reasons that we feel a bridge is not a viable option"


£20m in 2004 perhaps equates to £30m in 2013/14 or beyond...
Consider the practicalities of raising the roundabout by 10ft. You'd also have approach ramps either side reaching to 20ft+, several hundred feet in length.. The Swan pub would have to go, as would some of the business units on Pipers Lane. And as for the residents on Station Road, I think they would have an opinion on that idea...

It would be more feasible to build a tunnel...!


This latest idea is just someone playing around with their road marking design software and seeing what happens. It will have no material impact on the general peak period flow across the level crossing.


The answer lies with, and always has been with, Network Rail and their intractable position with regard the 'trigger mechanism' for the activation of the barriers. But what incentive is there for Network Rail to change the control to something more intelligent that can identify whether the train crossing the trigger point is a slow gravel train that takes 15 minutes to crawl to Thatcham or a 125 that will whistle through in 3 minutes? None. No incentive at all. In fact while more motorists get frustrated behind the wheel, perhaps more will prefer to jump on the train.

So it's a Win, Win for Network Rail.........

[Andy Capp]

The answer lies with, and always has been with, Network Rail and their intractable position with regard the 'trigger mechanism' for the activation of the barriers. But what incentive is there for Network Rail to change the control to something more intelligent that can identify whether the train crossing the trigger point is a slow gravel train that takes 15 minutes to crawl to Thatcham or a 125 that will whistle through in 3 minutes? None. No incentive at all. In fact while more motorists get frustrated behind the wheel, perhaps more will prefer to jump on the train.

Good point and perhaps £70k, or so, would be better spent on paying NR for a trigger system that is fit for the 21st Century.