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), I was wondering, what is the busiest crossing (in
terms of Number of trains) in the London area, and what crossing is
closest to Central London?

Thanks,
Joe -x-

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

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?"

and what crossing is closest to Central London?

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

--
Paul Terry

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)

Richard J. wrote:

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


The two on the Kingston loop just after New Malden station are also
pretty close together... not sure if they are closer than the two above
though!

Location at
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.sr...=newsearch.srf

Cheers,

Steve M

Steve M wrote:
Richard J. wrote:

Paul Terry wrote:

In message . com,
Joe writes

[snip]
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


The two on the Kingston loop just after New Malden station are also
pretty close together... not sure if they are closer than the two
above though!

Location at

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.sr...=newsearch.srf

Not sure what "the two above" refers to, as this thread has not actually
discussed pairs of crossings close together, apart from the thread
reference that Paul Terry gave. That thread concluded that Vine Street
in Barnes had the closest pair in London, with about 6 car lengths
between the crossings.

The Elm Road crossings at New Malden look from the aerial photograph to
be about one car length apart. Are you saying that there are separate
sets of gates for each track? If not, it's just one crossing with the
tracks a bit further apart than usual.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

JRS: In article , dated
Sun, 3 Apr 2005 00:12:31, seen in news:uk.transport.london, Richard J.
posted :

The Elm Road crossings at New Malden look from the aerial photograph to
be about one car length apart. Are you saying that there are separate
sets of gates for each track? If not, it's just one crossing with the
tracks a bit further apart than usual.

Only for very short cars. Only one set of gates, of the usual lifting
sort; four of them, one per carriageway per track.

I think a reasonably small car - a Morris Minor, for example, *might* be
able to park between (parallel to) the tracks at the Kingston side.

Substantially, approaching the west it is an ordinary double track which
starts diverging about 40m before the crossing in order that trains may
climb to join the north side of the main line, whereas eastbound trains
have just come under the main line from the south side.

It's dangerous, because a couple of car-lengths to the South there's a
one-lane road bridge under the railway, followed by a length of narrow
road - and the road to the north is also narrow. But as it looks
dangerous, and few strangers will find it, it's probably safe enough.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQish topics, acronyms, & links.
I find MiniTrue useful for viewing/searching/altering files, at a DOS prompt;
free, DOS/Win/UNIX, URL:http://www.idiotsdelight.net/minitrue/ Update hope?