Media centre

Monday 4 Sep 2017

Delny level crossing upgrade works completed

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Network Rail engineers have completed work to upgrade the open level crossing at Delny.

A new half-barrier crossing system became operational yesterday (Sunday, September 3) following a week-long closure of the crossing from Monday, August 28.

The AOCL-type open crossing was the site of a fatal collision in 2007 and Network Rail is currently developing plans to remove the crossing entirely from the railway and replace it with a bridge.

The upgrade moves Scotland’s railway a step closer to completing a programme to barrier all similar crossings in the country with only Dingwall No1 and Rosarie (in Moray) still to be upgraded.

Over the last five years, Network Rail has installed 21 barrier systems at open crossings across the route and once Dingwall and Rosarie are complete there will be no AOCL-type crossings on our network in Scotland.

Alex Sharkey, head of operations, said: “Over the weekend our engineers completed work to install automatic half barriers at Delny.

“This new infrastructure will further improve safety for road users and rail passengers at this location while we continue to develop plans for a new bridge over the line.

“Level crossings are one of the biggest risks to rail safety and we are committed to removing public crossings from our network where we can, and installing barriers where we cannot.”