Monday 1 Jul 2013
Improving level crossing safety at Four Ends Lane
- Region & Route:
Pedestrians and motorists using Four Ends Lane level crossing near Hoscar, Lancashire now have safer journeys after an upgrade to the level crossing in the village.
The old crossing design dated from the 1980s and was designed for much lower usage than experienced today with no signal protection and barriers operated by a crossing attendant.
Following a near miss between a train and a vehicle in September 2012, Network Rail obtained a temporary closure of the crossing while improvement works that had already been designed were implemented.
The new full barrier crossing opened in June and benefits from automatic protection and obstacle detection, substantially reducing the risk for crossing users.
Network Rail route managing director Dyan Crowther said: “Where a road or footpath meets the railway there will always be a risk – tragically, for a few people every year, this results in injury or loss of life.
“The surest way to reduce risk at a level crossing is to close it. If this isn’t possible, then we need to make sure the right safety measures are in place. I’d like to thank local people for their understanding and patience while we worked to complete the upgrade at Four Ends Lane.”
Notes to editors
Network Rail delivered the level crossing upgrade alongside its contractor Babcock Rail.
Visit http://www.networkrail.co.uk/level-crossings/types-of-level-crossing/footpath-crossings/ for more information and guidance on how to use them safely.
Network Rail has a dedicated youth initiative called Rail Life. Created in partnership with young people it aims to raise awareness of level crossing safety and other rail safety issues. The initiative will provide a wide range of resources, ranging from assembly kits to lesson plans, for use in schools and youth clubs.
The high impact youth website www.rail-life.co.uk contains facts, videos, advice and lots of content on rail safety for teenagers (11-17 year olds).
The vision for the campaign is that it will become the main place that young people (and the professionals who work with them) will go to for insights and information on many aspects of the railway – from safety, to careers, to general information about Britain’s transforming rail network.
Contact information
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About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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