Angry residents demand action over Horsham level crossing 'causing traffic nightmare'

A petition has been launched to try to get Network Rail to reassess how the level crossing in Parsonage Road is managed. Drivers face lengthy waits for barriers to be raised after trains pass.

Problems first arose this summer after Network Rail carried out safety upgrades to the crossing, and another at Littlehaven.

But residents say that since then massive queues of cars frequently build up in the area causing chaos for drivers and pedestrians.Drivers have branded journeys ‘a nightmare’, ‘beyond a joke’ and ‘ridiculous.’

Ali Hollingworth, who has launched a petition urging Network Rail for action, said that before the upgrade, drivers faced a maximum of a five minute wait when the barriers came down and went up again. She said it now takes 15 minutes and some people had been left for 20 minutes before the barrier lifted ‘and no train had passed by.’

She says it is causing ‘a potential threat to life’ with emergency vehicles unable to cross and increased air pollution from stationary cars.

Around 1,500 people have so far signed the petition, stating: “The way the crossing is controlled or managed needs to be reassessed and changed.”

See: https://www.change.org/p/railway-crossing-in-parsonage-road

Meanwhile, Network Rail maintains that the new crossings are safer than previously and spoke out about them when public concerns were first raised.

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A spokesperson said: “Both Parsonage Road and Rusper Road (Littlehaven) are manually controlled crossings, monitored from Three Bridges signalling centre via CCTV.

“Parsonage Road used to be automatic, which meant nobody checked the road before trains ran across it. The new crossing is 18 times safer, but it does take longer to cycle through the sequence as the signaller has to lower the barriers and make sure the road is clear, before turning signals to green and allowing trains across.

"There’s a glut of trains to and from Horsham once every half hour, with three in a row in quick succession and it’s not always possible for signallers to raise the barriers quickly between trains. That’s why drivers sometimes find themselves stuck at the lights for longer.”