Following upgrade works undertaken last year, instead of reducing down times as promised, residents have reported long delays and traffic chaos as a result of extended level crossing down times. I have been engaging with Network Rail and South Western Railway to understand the causes and work on solutions to minimise this disruption, and have raised the need for swift action to address this at all levels, including with Ministers, the rail regulator and even with the Prime Minister at PMQs.
Ensuring solutions begins with understanding the issue, therefore my first action was to request data on level crossing downtimes, which my team and I analysed. I was shocked that data provided for Pooley Green crossing in September 2023 indicates delays of over 10 minutes occurred on 119 occasions – a huge 3967 percent increase compared to just three instances in September of the previous year. In one extreme case, the delay lasted an entire hour.
Such delays disrupt daily life and could hinder emergency services from navigating the area efficiently. As part of my work in response to these issues I have reached out to our emergency services and requested Network Rail work with me to improve coordination with emergency services to ensure that delays at the level crossing do not obstruct critical blue light services.
I also presented the data to Network Rail, who agreed the issue was more significant that first acknowledged. They are now working to address this. Network Rail provide me with regular updates, and have outlined their work to improve the data layout on service stations for signalling staff, and have set out plans to progress a modelling study on two further changes to the track side equipment.
I have also called for improved data collection from Network Rail, including on the traffic impact, so any solutions can be tailored at minimising the areas of greatest disruption. This work in currently underway, with Network Rail having recently conducted a traffic study at stations, and work with Surrey County Council highways to obtain data on broader traffic impact across the area. This data is being collated and Network Rail have committed to reporting their findings in July.
I continue to engage regularly and emphasise the need for urgent improvements, not just to address the disruption for motorists, but also the safety concerns for cyclists and pedestrians taking risks due to frustrations over down times.
Although I am pleased to see some progress with the changes to staff training and processes having already been implemented, the situation is unlikely to materially improve until the technical changes needed to make a real difference are delivered. This unfortunately takes more time as it is important that all proposed changes are fully explored so they do not inadvertently make the situation worse, especially as there are so many level crossings in a small area. The data being collected will help to enable this to be done successfully, and I hope the scrutiny being applied not only locally but by the Department of Transport, following my Ministerial meetings, will help ensure addressing this remains a priority.
