Railway level crossings

modsandmockers

Stigy wrote: »

Unfortunately you've done it again and made a rather broad assumption regarding railway fatalities. What is your source to evidence that most railway fatalities occur on high speed lines where speeds are in excess of 100mph? Bearing in mind a large proportion of the mainline network in the UK doesn't have lines that exceed 100mph, I find it strange that most fatalities occur on such lines.

I was referring to railway suicides, and it's just another educated guess.

armyknife

I cycle through a level crossing almost every day, I don't bother to look to see if there's a train coming, been lucky so far.

Stigy

modsandmockers wrote: »

I was referring to railway suicides, and it's just another educated guess.

The same applies to suicides (another educated guess here in that most fatalities are suicides anyway!) in that we have our fair share in the south, whereby a lot of trash is less than 100mph. A lot of people 'jump' in stupid places where linespeed in less than 40mph, or at stations where all trains have scheduled stops anyway!

armyknife

What would be the OP's take if we ripped up all railway lines and replaced it with tarmac that cars could use?


All the car driver would have to do in return, would be make mandatory stops at all station where 'passengers' request a lift, until such time as the drivers car is full of such 'hitch-hikers.

modsandmockers

armyknife wrote: »

What would be the OP's take if we ripped up all railway lines and replaced it with tarmac that cars could use?

Read my lips - the thread is intended to refer only to little-used branch lines...

And, yes, it would make sense to replace them with busways.

Here's another educated guess - many of these branch lines survived the Beeching cuts because of the industry which had grown up around them. The branch line near me no longer has any industrial use at all.

armyknife

modsandmockers wrote: »

Read my lips - the thread is intended to refer only to little-used branch lines...

And, yes, it would make sense to replace them with busways.

Here's another educated guess - many of these branch lines survived the Beeching cuts because of the industry which had grown up around them. The branch line near me no longer has any industrial use at all.

I can't this is the internet, and there no way I'm hooking up a webcam to chat with you.

What was the first educated guess, as I've searched for it and can find it on this sub-forum.

pendragon_arther

Using a bit of lateral thinking here, what I don't quite understand is why the Government aren't investing in Monorails such as the HS2 project. Because they are elevated this would dispense with level crossings, flooding and problems associated with deep snow. Bring it on.

modsandmockers

Here are two more educated guesses -

1 - HS2 will have no level crossings.
2 - Apart from running on a pair of parallel rails, the technology of HS2 will have almost nothing in common with the obsolete technology and operating procedures of the few remaining UK railway branch lines.

Tilt

In my opinion HS2 is a total unnecessary waste of money. The country isn't geographically long enough to warrant it.

RedheadFred

Surely it's common sense that a train has right of way on a railway track.

Fun level crossing story - I often cross a crossing on a farm, and once it got stuck on green without me knowing. I was in the middle of it, with a horse, in a storm, and a train came blaring round the corner. I almost defecated myself!