Honestly the route is so long that I don't see the point keeping them request stops.
Oh don't stop them being actual stops.
Where are you getting the idea they are relatively costly? Given that most of them are single platforms with minimal facilities and no staff I doubt the cost of request stops comes close to touching the sides of the cost of a major station like Waverley.
Indeed. And of course, certainly in times gone by, the entire rationale for keeping parliamentary services going is because it's cheaper than closing a station entirely.
They do need maintenance (which is why ABC had to be clsoed when staff were denied access) and the capital cost of setting up the RtS equipment, including power suipply etc, must have been significant.
I thought that at the time but then it occurred to me that it probably related to the TSR, imposed as a result of people standing on/close to the track, and the need to alert any potential such persons that a train was approaching in the dark.
There was a photograph online showing the south side of the level crossing, taken by a passenger on the train. The full size gate is down the side of the embankment, a three plank wooden fence and narrow pedestrian gate has been erected in its place. The gate being similar to that by the chained cattle grid at the station.
Though I suspect a lot of that "need" (over a single year at least) is likely to be satisfying rules and regulations about inspections rather than actual work needed to keep the station genuinely safe. Not saying it doesn't need to be done - but the staff are going to be there to do it at the other stations anyway, so additional costs are minimal (OK - accessing Altnabreac, even without "opposition", is going to add to costs but not massively.)
I think the TSR had been imposed because the telephones hadd been duisabled (they can be seen in the "Jenny Agutter Tribute Act" videos lying in the ditch) meaning there was no way for authorised users of teh crossing to contact the signalling staff to find if it was safe to cross.
Yes, sorry, got my wires a bit crossed there. Typing quicker than my brain was processing.
The disputed area is six miles long.
Yet at Durham (southbound) and Northallerton they generally do blow the horn when passing the station.
It's difficult to separate fact from fiction on this matter. Certainly in previous posts in this thread, someone close to the couple alleged that there hadn't been any tampering at all and, at the same time, that the tampering was caused by the previous owners. Clearly both positions cannot be true.
Probably, the version I saved was cropped substantially.
Neither is very pluasible. The damage to the equipm,ent at the crossing is evident in videos they have themselves published. And since it was filmed in 2024, nearly three years after they moved in, it is unlikely to have been done by the previous occupants. appeared in a was filmed in marc
I didn't take the picture - and there is a copyrighth notice which is I why I linked to it.
At the end of the day, aside from at whistleboards, it is up to each individual driver to make decisions about sounding the horn based on perceived hazards.
I don't think anybody has disputed that.
If a driver has spent years passing a station without using their horn, then a dispute about access starts with people who live on or next to the station, and the driver then starts using the horn; bearing in mind this alleged series of events pre-dates the level crossing incidents; and the driver goes on to say something along the lines of, "Hope you're enjoying the morning horns.", I think that's revenge, not safety. We shouldn't encourage that, whatever we think about the ongoing situation.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think it is a good idea to use the horn to taunt the residents either. However, given their subsequent repeated trespass activites, it seems sensible to sound the horn now, even if it wasn't at the beginning.
Trespass was actually dropped. But otherwise I would agree, if (which isn't what is described) the horn usage started after suspected trespass.
One might wonder what number of crimes of vandalism have been officially recorded after investigation in the Altnabreac area over the last 10 years.
It was first mentioned in November 2023, around the time the station temporarily closed and the situation made the national (international - London, England based!) press.
But it is the principle of not letting bumptious idiots destroy a public service. It could be Glasgow Queen Street next time!
