Public Rights of Way Report - Chiltern Evergreen3

London Road Level Crossing6.11 The London Road Level Crossing is to be retained and improved as designstudies showed that it would be extremely difficult to provide a replacementbridge to meet the requisite highway alignment standards without extensiveland acquisition and property demolition. Any bridge would also havesignificantly adverse visual impact on and from the surrounding townscape.Whilst the number of crossing closures and the percentage of time in whichthe highway is closed, with the Scheme in place will be greater than now, thisis still lower than at other crossings across the rail network.6.12 The upgrade will not affect the presentation of the crossing to road users inthat the existing arrangement of barriers, traffic signals and audible warningswill remain unchanged. However, the crossing will be operated by a signallerat a remote location rather than by the train driver. The closure sequence willbe automatically initiated by the approach of a train. This will alert thesignaller by an audible alarm and initiate the road stop signals. A CCTVmonitor will switch on, presenting the signaller with a series of live views ofthe crossing and the signaller will start the barrier-lowering sequence. Oncethe barriers are fully lowered, the signaller presses a button to confirm that heor she has checked the CCTV monitors and observed that the crossing is clearof obstructions. The railway signals protecting the crossing are interlockedwith the crossing controls, and can only be cleared to green once the barriersare fully lowered and the signaller has operated the ‘crossing clear’ button. Aswith the current arrangement, the barriers raise automatically once the trainhas passed.6.13 The upgrade to the crossing will also include improvements to the footway inthe vicinity of the level crossing which will improve the environment forpedestrians crossing the railway at this location. Two additional pedestriancontrolled crossings are being proposed on London Road to facilitatepedestrian movements into Bicester Town station.6.14 The main advantages of the proposed system over the current one are reducedroad closure time each time a train passes it removes the need for the traindriver to operate the crossing and with it the need for every train to stopbefore passing over the crossing. It is estimated that the average closure timeper train movement will be around two minutes and therefore the maximumclosure time will average eight minutes per hour. The London boundplatform will be sited so that the crossing barriers can remain ‘up’ whilst atrain is standing in the station, thus minimising closing time.6.15 A full assessment of any road traffic impacts associated with the retention andimprovement of the level crossing is considered in the Traffic and Transportchapter of the Environmental Statement which accompanies the Transport andWorks Act Order.ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT34CHILTERN RAILWAYS