News

Bridge over town centre level crossing call

March 09, 2010

A Euro MP has called for a bridge to be built over Wokingham railway station’s level crossing to prevent traffic chaos.

Sharon Bowles MEP visited the Barkham Road level crossing in February, prompted by plans for Airtrack – a high-speed rail link between the borough and Heathrow Airport.

If plans go through for an Airtrack service, the barriers could be down for an extra 12 minutes every hour.

Ms Bowles said: “While I welcome a better service to Heathrow, a bridge needs to be built over the level crossing so that cars are not left stranded for long periods of time waiting for trains to pass.

“I feel strongly that Wokingham residents should not have to suffer the consequences of Heathrow’s expansion.

“It is time to consider the impact an increase in train traffic will have on the town.”

The Department for Transport will launch a public enquiry into the Heathrow service in the autumn.

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its not too late to sign the government petition about this! details at http://www.wokingham-airtrack.org/

garethrees, Wokingham
15/03/2010 at 17:29

I was at the level crossing the other day thinking the very same thing, what if you could build a bridge over the railway. Given how built up the area is around there I don't think you could get the inclines in place to cross the railway exactly where the crossing is today, unless of course you decide to lower the track and platforms as part of this project. Lowering the track means that the bridge inclines would not have to be so steep.

As an alternative you could divert traffic down Oxford road just before the crossing, obviously making some changes to allow lorries to get round with ease. You would drive down Oxford road for about 100m before going up an incline which then takes you up onto a bridge that takes you across the track and into the station car park, the road would then split off to the left to join the proposed new station exit road going behind the church and to the left you would simply come out of the existing station exit to go towards the town centre.

Something has to be done with this crossing and, sadly!, I spent some time looking at Google Earth to see if this type of bridge would be viable with the space that is available. There has been a lot of effort put into defining the new master plan for Wokingham but relatively little effort into trying to resolve the bottleneck around that particular crossing. If a bridge such as the one I suggested were to be put in place then it would allow the Heathrow rail link to be put in place which in turn will provide a growth engine for Wokingham over the next decade.

Mark68
10/03/2010 at 13:52

Mavdo - I'd never noticed that before, I guess that explains why the trains sometimes have to wait. I always used to get so nervous going over that crossing.

I just don't think a bridge will work in reality though, considering the other roads and buildings in the area.

I had wondered if it might just be better to remove that small part of the road altogether and get rid of the crossing - there are other routes around Wokingham that avoid the crossing and it might actually improve traffic flow as people wouldn't be queuing there. Although, thinking about it that might be difficult for lorries and buses as the other bridge on the other side of Molly Millar's isn't large enough for these vehicles to go through.

CMA
10/03/2010 at 12:53

I've been thinking about this for years.

It's all very well saying one should be built, and it would solve a lot of issues... BUT, how on earth would a bridge work in reality????

You'd have to build an incline for quite a way on the non-wokingham side of the station, as well as at least up to the pub on the Wokingham side, just to get the road over train height. Large and heavy vehicles have to be catered for here because they can't go the other way because of the bridges that go over the roads near Tesco, so you can't have a risk of grounding and hence the gradient changes have to be gentle on either side of the bridge - you can't just stick in a humpback bridge and be done with it - you'd be closing the road to HGVs entirely. You'd end blocking off houses and shops with head high roads outside their front doors.

Then you've got the roads that turn off either side of the station to think of. Can they be built in to this bridge, especially as they'd have to be built up to bridge height too?

I think that to put a bridge in, the station and railtrack have to be lowered a bit *as well*, and that's a massive task to do without preventing train travel completely for months on end. Plus you'd have to rebuild the station, and close all the roads for weeks meaning there would be no routes from West to East Wokingham at all.

I just don't think it is possible for less than a few hundred million quid and horrendous disruption for many, many months.

And the barriers don't trap cars queuing on the crossing because there is someone controlling them in the building next to the crossing. They don't close both barriers until all cars are off the crossing... at least that's the idea.

mavdo, Wokingham
09/03/2010 at 16:42

It was time to consider the impact of train traffic on the town ages ago. Having a level crossing just before a roundabout is extremely dangerous - cars often end up waiting on the crossing and it's a big surprise to me that they've never been stuck there when the barriers have gone down.

However, I am curious how a bridge will affect the houses near the crossing.