Thursday 26 July 2007

Paignton and the Level Crossing


This is one of the 2 level crossings in Paignton. The road in the background is Hyde Road, the busiest road in the area. It is a two lane, one way street but the local Blue Badge holders turn it into a one lane one way street. So when the barriers come down Hyde Road slows down to a crawl. This afternoon the barriers came down and the train went through. The barriers didn't go back up again which usually means there is an other train due. Not this afternoon. This afternoon the lack of upward motion on the part of the barriers was due to a defect in the mechanism. People stood about for a few minutes until they worked out that an other train wasn't hurtling towards them at breakneck speed and walked over the bridge. The car drivers turned their cars around and found an other way round. No problem. Except that once one lot of car drivers had worked out that the barriers were not going to point themselves at the sky and driven off, a new lot of car drivers would replace them and wait a few minutes before the truth dawned and they went their alternate, merry way. A process that repeated itself for a couple of hours. The engineers who knew exactly where to hit the lifting gear with a big hammer are stationed in Exeter, 30 miles away and they had to get through the traffic jam just like us lesser mortals. So did the police turn up to direct the traffic away from this seemingly unending cycle of arriving at the barrier, wait 5 minutes, penny drop, move away, be replaced by more waiters? No. It would appear they considered it to be a British Transport Police problem. Nearest British Transport Police? Yes that's right. Plymouth. 35 miles away. I arrived in Brixham only 45 minutes late. By the time I got back to Paignton some one had hit the mechanism with a hammer in the right place and once again the barriers were pointing to the heavens. Which was nice of them.

4 comments:

caramaena said...

I got stuck at a similar situation for about 20 minutes yesterday. We have a level crossing just next to the train station and I could see the train sitting there. I thought the train was about to move out so we just sat there waiting, waiting...

After a bit some cars behind me started driving over the little traffic island and going around but unfortunately the section at the front (where I was) had all these little signs in the traffic island so I had to sit there and wait. Eventually someone came and lifted the barriers with the train still sitting at the station.

Anonymous said...

David, any news on the so-called ‘Bus War’ between Stagecoach and First?

Anonymous said...

When working well, level crossings such as yours can be rather interesting. The one in Poole no longer stops traffic (because the street’s been long pedestrianised). It no longer serves up quite the interesting rolling stock it once did but it still has the capacity to hold you in suspense while you wait to see what will thunder through. You wonder at who’s travelling and for what purpose. Only the impatient or uncaring use the adjacent footbridge. It’s good to pause a while and watch the train.

David said...

To busing re the war, the latest attempt by First was to put a Flag up on the Strand so the X80 could stop on the Harbour side which would mean they would pick up more passengers for Paignton. The council made then take it down. The other thing was a notice went up in Paignton canteen about a meeting recently in Ivybridge at which passengers using our X45 expressed satisfaction with our service and said how nice our drivers were. I haven't noticed any increse in the number of people using the X80 between Paignton and Torquay though First might say otherwise.
It's all a bit dull really.