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.

[Simon Kirby]

Like OtE said, now's actually quite a good time for the public sector to invest in capital works, and the boost to the economy would be welcome now too.

It's not simply a case of building a bridge, the whole Newbury/Thatcham traffic requirement needs taking into account, and it's my guess that an eastern bypass would be the answer - joining the A4 east of the conurbation with the A339 and A34 in the south. That might be best crossing at the current level crossing, or there might be somewhere better to the east. I'd guess the cost of that would be something like £200M, and that's a lot of money, but it would create the infrastructure for fifty years of expansion so spread like that the cost isn't so great, and the alternative of expanding without the infrastructure in place is just awful.

[Biker1]

It's not simply a case of building a bridge, the whole Newbury/Thatcham traffic requirement needs taking into account, and it's my guess that an eastern bypass would be the answer

Seems to me that you are saying that the by-pass was built on the wrong side of Newbury.

[Simon Kirby]

Seems to me that you are saying that the by-pass was built on the wrong side of Newbury.

Well, probably, but it was never going to have universal support whatever happened and I can see why the western bypass would have been the best choice all things considered - it delivered the most benefit for the least difficulty. As with all political decisions, democracy doesn't empower our representatives to make the best choices, only the least worst. That's our collective fault and not the failing of our politicians - we might talk about wanting brave visionary politics, but we're all reactionary nimbies at heart.