Residents in Bare demand improvements at railway crossing

The Bare Community Association has now created a petition which is being backed by Lancashire County Coun Stuart Morris, and Lancaster City Coun for Bare Stephie Barber.

Ian Maude, chair of the Bare Community Association, said the community have several concerns about the crossing.

He said: "Currently the time the barriers are down can be anything from 5 to 15 minutes.

"This is much longer than other local crossings that have mainline rail traffic and creates a huge queue both sides of the barriers, causing delays to vehicles, buses and pedestrians.

"The barriers being down for an extended period also creates safety issues as vehicles try to find alternative routes past schools and through 20mph zones.

"This is especially a problem at the busy times when the children are at school."

He also said a footbridge across the railway line is a "necessity".

"Pedestrians are left to wait at one side or the other or face a walk of over a mile around!" he said.

"This is a huge inconvenience. Again, it can create safety issues.

"There was a recent incident where an elderly lady was crossing when the barriers started closing and she had to be helped off the track by other pedestrians."

Finally he called for an improvement to repair times at the crossing.

He said: "Network Rail need to review how they react to the crossing not working in order to reduce the impact on the local community.

"At the present time traffic and buses have to divert away from Bare and pedestrians face a very long walk to Broadway to cross the line. Following recent storm damage, it was over 30 hours before the crossing was fully working, despite there being no trains.

Coun Stuart Morris said that improvements were long overdue and recent enquiries to Network Rail had been "rebuffed".

Coun Stephie Barber said that the petition is available online on the Bare Community Association’s Facebook page, or via this link

Mr Maude said that the petition would be sent to Morecambe and Lunesdale MP David Morris, asking him to take up "at the highest levels with Network Rail, as the present situation cannot continue".

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Safety is Network Rail’s main priority and level crossing barriers must remain in the down position when trains are approaching to protect motorists, cyclists, pedestrians and also passengers on trains.

“We are aware that the amount of level crossing barrier down time at Bare Lane is having an impact on the community. We are committed to improving this and are investigating ways to reduce the barrier down time while at the same time maintaining safety.”