Paul Terry wrote:
In message . com,
Joe writes

Whilst waiting for someone at Mortlake today, and saw the level
crossing going up & down every 5 mins (I dread to think what it's
like during the peak),

The opening and closing routine tends to be better on weekdays,
especially during the peaks, than at weekends. Nevertheless, it is a
very busy line

In a sample hour during the evening peak last year at Manor Road
crossing (by North Sheen station on the same stretch of line), the gates
were down for about 50% of the time, but still allowed more than 750
vehicles to cross.

I was wondering, what is the busiest crossing (in terms of Number
of trains) in the London area,

Last time this was asked here (only a few months ago) it was
generally reckoned that the busiest is the one you saw (along with
its three adjacent siblings). Do a Google Groups search in
uk.transport.london for the thread "London's busiest level
crossing?"

The Sheen-Mortlake crossings had up to 19 trains per hour in the peaks
pre-December 2004. I haven't checked the new timetable to see if this
figure is still true.

and what crossing is closest to Central London?

Google again for the thread "London's closest pair of level
crossings?"

That thread was about the minimum distance between two crossings. The
discussion about the crossing closest to London was in the thread "level
crosings on the LUL", starting with the 5th post in that thread. The
answer was the crossing over the West London Line just south of
Willesden Junction that gives access to a scrap yard off Scrubs Lane. I
think it's the one arrowed at
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.sr...=newsearch.srf

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)