Network Rail is quietly confident that road users in South Holland may have seen the last of the ongoing problem which has caused level crossings to close for hours at a time.
It has taken 12 months to get to this point but the very many drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and businesses frustrated by automatic closures when no train has been approaching will hope the confidence is well founded.
Work to replace a component in 130 axle counters on the GNGE line has been carried out.
Axle counters detect where a train is and tell the signaller. The default situation when that fails to happen is to close barriers.
A Network Rail spokesman said on Tuesday: “The work to the axle counters was completed in September. As of the beginning of last week, we’d had no failures of this component reported to us.
“Work to further improve the performance of these level crossings is being tested on a small number of crossings to test that it is error free.
“Subject to the testing being effective, this will be rolled out to all the affected crossings before Christmas.”
Lengthy level crossings closures have been commonplace since a £280m line upgrade in October 2014.
The news comes as Network Rail’s Ed Dunn, who is responsible for network strategy and planning in this area, prepares to be quizzed at a public event in Spalding.
Senior members of several transport companies will speak at Connecting South Lincolnshire, a conference at Springfields Events Centre on Friday, October 16 (10am to 4pm). Items likely to be discussed include rail services both on Sundays and to and from Lincoln, a bus service through Spalding’s Market Place and Hall Place and A16 improvements.
George Scott, chairman of The Spalding and Peterborough Transport Forum, said: “Our aim is to listen to and to ask questions of the speakers who operate services that affect all our daily lives when we need to travel.”
To book a conference place (£15 including lunch), call 01522 523333.
