Network Rail says 10% of Britain's level crossings closed (BBC News)

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

Oxfordshire County Council appears to have been successful in a bid for funds to remove the level crossing at London Road, Bicester in time for EastWest Rail services starting....a bridge is going in there

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

Bicester - London Road level crossing - The Oxford Mail report reads:
 Bicester^s London Road will be improved in expectation of an increase in train services following the completion of the East West rail project ^ which could consist of a bridge or a new road.
The council has been given up to ^6.8m for this but the total cost of the project is not yet known.
From what I can recall, there is not a lot of space to build a bridge and I wonder where an alternative road could be built.
However it is good to see the likely problem being tackled.

[stuving]

I think this is still going through one of those will-they-won't-they funding dances. The money has been devolved from DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) to the new Oxfordshire Local Transport Board but comes via the Local Enterprise Partnership. How much they get is a bit of a mystery - at least ^M10.6 over four years, but their priority list runs to ^M128, so giving 2/3 of that total to this one bridge seems a bit surprising. The initial gesstimate of total cost was ^M10, which sounds like a standard budgetting figure for an overbridge.

The proposal (as in July 2013) is:

A new all-modes road bridge across the railway (or road underpass plus pedestrian overbridge) at London Road. Alternatively a new link road from the A41 overbridge to London Road (and pedestrian overbridge)  or a new link road from Charbridge Road to Launton Road (plus pedestrian overbridge).

I can't see why you would want a bridge there - it would funnel more traffic straight into the centre of town - so one of the alternatives looks a better bet.

Further down the priority list is:

Conversion of current level crossing of A4144 Bicester eastern perimeter road with Oxford-Bletchley Railway line into grade separated over/under-bridge.  Part of wider scheme to promote an eastern route around the town for strategic and employment traffic, to reduce congestion in the town centre and enable sustainable transport movements within the town. 

This one is not being proposed for LTB?LEP^» (Local Enterprise Partnership - about) funding.

[ChrisB]

Looks as though they got ^2.3m.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-25862943

[stuving]

However, I came across two NR^» (Network Rail - home page) guys today who were surveying the crossing to provide inputs for a risk assessment using the ALCRM model. The one I spoke to was very unimpressed indeed with what he saw - he agreed with me that you just can't have a give-way line stopping you getting off a level crossing! He also said that the plan in the LC^▸ (Level Crossing) order showed a different road layout, without the mini-roundabout (so I guess it was as in the 60s, when the straight on road had priority over both side roads).

He knew nothing about the council's plans for a traffic light junction synchronised with the railway crossing, and did not think they could put one in without a lot of regulatory work first - and was not surprised to be told they (WBC) were struggling to find a suitable contractor to do it.

So we'll see what happens.

Well, WBC have been discussing this with NR - and finding them about as slow and rigid to deal with as the Highways Agency, apparently. After the survey had been run through ALCRM, NR came back saying they wanted to close the crossing. I suspect they always say that, as a first bargaining position, but retreat when the question of who pays for an alternative comes up. At least they will get to close another one (Waterloo Road), when a new bridge gets built close to it.