A rail crossing deemed “dangerous” by local residents and recommended for upgrade in 2015 will not now have the work completed until 2022, Network Rail has revealed.
The Crescent Road crossing between Birkdale and Hillside stations has automatic barriers which only cover half of the roadway on each side, which means the track can be accessed even as trains approach.
The site has seen a number of serious accidents and fatalities over the years and a recent online video showed an elderly man who appeared confused simply wandering across the track just prior to a train hurtling past.
Labour campaigners discovered through a Freedom of Information request that the site was recommended for upgrade to a full barrier system in a 2015 risk assessment and their Southport parliamentary candidate, Liz Savage, has repeatedly called on Network Rail to say exactly when this work would be carried out.
Now, Network Rail has revealed to the maker of the online video, local resident Stuart Allister, that they are not planning to complete the work until March 2022.
Liz Savage commented:
“Stuart has contacted me about this and we are horrified that it will take seven years to upgrade it after Network Rail first deemed the site dangerous enough to need this work. That timescale is completely unacceptable.”
“There have been fatalities at this crossing since Network Rail first identified the risks, and now it seems they are prepared to risk yet more lives with this delay.”
“The rail company even bizarrely tried to claim that half barriers gave users of the crossing the ability to get out of the way of trains. Of course, if there were full barriers they wouldn’t be able to just wander onto the crossing and into the way of trains in the first place.”
Birkdale resident Sonya Kelly is one of the local campaigners on the issue, she says that Network Rail needs to realise it can’t keep shunting the work into the sidings:
“This crossing is dangerous, it has been identified as needing the safety work for several years and during that period people have died there and it has been very difficult in getting Network Rail to come clean about when the safety improvements would take actually place.”
“Now we can understand their reluctance to admit to another three and a half year delay on top of the one we have already endured. Birkdale residents deserve better, as does anyone using that crossing. It’s shameful behaviour by Network Rail.”
Liz Savage says it’s also high time the town’s MP realised the seriousness of the matter and acted:
“Southport’s Conservative MP has been too busy trying to wrongly claim the credit for the return of the service to Manchester Piccadilly to get much involved in this but we call on him to get his government to put pressure on Network Rail to upgrade this crossing before more lives are lost or endangered.”
“If the town’s MP can jump to the defence of the rail minister instead of Southport commuters when the Department for Transport deliberately deceived local rail users over the cutting of the Manchester Piccadilly service, then he can try and use those party connections for the good of local residents to ensure this vital work is carried out.”
Photo caption – Liz Savage (centre) with fellow campaigners Sonya Kelly and Merseytravel Chair Liam Robinson at the crossing