A Pair Of Level Crossings At Vine Road, Barnes
Regular readers of this blog, will know that I don’t like level crossings.
But then, if you’ve lived in East Anglia as much as I have and been inconvenienced, so many times by idiots having accidents or worse at level crossings, you will understand how I feel.
This pair just to the West of Barnes station are two of the most inconvenient for both road and rail, that I’ve seen.
This Google Map shows the area.
A Pair Of Level Crossings At Vine Road, Barnes
Note the two crossings are on Vine Road at the left of the map, with Barnes station at the right.
It took me perhaps ten minutes fifteen minutes to walk from one side of the two railway lines to the other. In that time, the following happened.
- The gates on the Northern tracks through Barnes Bridge station closed once.
- The gates on the Southern tracks through Mortlate station closed three times.
- At least one closure was a long one for a train in each direction.
- A group of teenagers ran across as the gates closed.
On return, I searched the Internet and found this article on the BBC, which is entitled Video captures pedestrians’ ‘extremely dangerous’ dash across level crossing.
This is a typical extract from the article.
Martin, who did not give his surname, said: “It’s ridiculous. I’ve personally sat there for 45 minutes once and it gets worse in rush hours obviously.
“It might be true that they have engineering works, but that’s not the only factor.”
I am surprised that the Health and Safety Executive haven’t ordered Network Rail to close these crossings, which is the only sensible action.
Tunnels or footbridges could be provided for pedestrians and cyclists and vehicle traffic could use other routes.
But of course that would be politically unacceptable to the residents. And probably reduce house prices!
It’s a difficult one, but the alternative of closing the railway would be equally unacceptable to the pver two million passengers every year, who use Barnes station.
Another Level Crossing Crash In East Anglia
This afternoon, I was in Cambridge trying to get to Ely.
I didn’t!
This report in the East Anglian Daily Times, which is entitled Investigation underway after car driver seriously hurt during train strike at level crossing near Ely – rail services severely disrupted, explains what happened and why I didn’t get to Ely!.
This is said.
Network Rail is investigating whether it had been asked for permission to open a gate at a level crossing before a vehicle was hit by a train.
I won’t prejudge their enquiry, but it strikes me there are these ways that the Land-Rover could have been on the crossing and hit by the train.
- The signalman erroneously gave the driver permission to cross.
- The phone system was broken.
- The driver crossed without permission.
- The vehicle broke down, whilst crossing.
My father always taught me to drive defensively and assume that everybody else is an idiot. Similar things were also said to me, when I was learning to fly.
In one case, not too far away from the level crossing, where the accident happened, I was driving home and at another crossing, the half-barriers were down and on enquiry they had been that way for half-an-hour with the lights flashing. I phoned the signaller and he told me all trains had been stopped for safety reasons and that we could all cross, by weaving through the barriers.
Eventually, I did this with extreme care, but others reversed and went the long way round.
Today, once clear of Cambridge and its troubles, I came across a very irate Abellio employee. Not with me, or the company, but with the accident, as she had had a big afternoon of complaints.
In my view, the driver was at fault, as he did not appear to assume that the signaller was an idiot.
Incidentally, the Abellio employee was of the opinion, that all crossings should be replaced with ones with full barriers.
Certainly, in this day and age, user-worked level crossings are not safe enough for many of the idiots on our roads.
Every Problem Has An Invention To Help
This article with video on the BBC entitled Migrant crisis: Inventor creates inflatable tube to save lives, is a heart-warming story about an invention, that has come out of the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.
I can’t believe that it doesn’t have other live-saving applications.
Manchester Has Ways Of Dealing With Cyclists
I took these pictures in Manchester City Centre.
These trucks with no sideguards wouldn’t be allowed in London. Why does Manchester allow them?
Thoughts On Handrails
Transport for London and their various predecessors have always been very particular about handrails on stairs in stations and also on buses. Here’s some examples.
But are we that particular in our homes. I put this handrail on my stairs.
The Handrails On My Stairs
And I put extra hand holds in my bathroom.
A Handhold In My Shower
I feel very strongly that when you fit rails and hand holds for safety reasons, that you should not have to pay VAT on the hardware and the work. Especially, if as in the case of the handrail on the stairs bloody Jerry should have put them in when he built the house.
My MP agrees and she has written to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
I suspect in the case of my professionally-designed and Sheffield-built handrail, the biggest objections to removing VAT will come from those snake oil-salesmen, who get the elderly and disabled to buy unnecessary stair-lifts.
An interesting point, is that probably quite a few premises that have to fit extra handrails and handhold are commercial premises, like offices, restaurants and shops, who of course would be registered for VAT.
J And C Reunited In My Kitchen
I needed a few more mugs and just had to buy these when I saw them in Marks and Spencer.
J And C Reunited In My Kitchen
But I did have to buy them on-line, as they seem to be two of the rarer letters.
I’m reminded of a story from my past.
I was working for ICI at Runcorn and I’d designed and built an instrument to measure water in a particular chemical stream. It needed to be fitted and wired into the plant in their Rocksavage works. I was told to arrange the fitting with Charlie Akers, who was the senior electrician on the plant. I turned up one morning at the electrical workshop in the plant and Charlie gave me a tour, which showed me all the dangers and how to do basic things to avoid getting into trouble. To this day, when I’m climbing metal staircases and ladders, I still do it in the way that Charlie showed me, to avoid getting nasty chemicals or dirt on my hands.
Charlie then took me back to their workshop and then proceeded to pull a new white mug out of a box of about a couple of dozen and then with a small brush put my name on it. He then said that now, I’d had no excuse to not come here to have a cup of tea before going on the plant, as no-one wanted any accidents.
It was this attention to detail about Health and Safety that was the reason that Rocksavage Works had at the time, the best accident record in ICI.
A couple of years ago, when I went over SELCHP, one of the guides had noticed me climbing some metal stairs and asked if I’d ever worked in plants like that.
After all I’ve been through, Charlie’s lesson is still imprinted in my brain.
Beware Of Underground Winds
I saw this at Kentish Town Underground station today.
Beware Of Underground Winds
It’s nice to see humour getting involved with Health and Safety!
A Double Handrail At London Bridge
I’ve been up these steps many times in the past and don’t remember the double handrail in the middle.
A Double Handrail At London Bridge
They seem to be springing up in a lot of places in London. They certainly makes the steps a lot safer. Especially for me, as my left hand isn’t the best.
Crap Dangerous Staircases Of East London
I have taken some pictures of the staircases in various railway stations across East London.
There is no alternatives to any of these, as they are lift-free stations. So just imagine, how the elderly, those in wheel-chairs and those with buggies cope.
To Greenwich Under The River
I’d never been through the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, when I used it to get from Island Gardens station on the DLR to Greenwich Pier, so I could get pictures of HMS Illustrious.
As the pictures show, I shared the lifts and the tunnel with a party of extremely well-behaved Primary School children. I mentioned to the teacher in charge, that I’m surprised Health and Safety let children into the tunnel. She said things were getting better and the children loved using the tunnel.
The Anonymous Widower 