Horsham level crossing upgrades blamed for 'ridiculously long' traffic queues

People are complaining of long waiting times at the crossings in Parsonage Road and at Littlehaven.

Some drivers are getting so frustrated while waiting in lengthy traffic queues that they are doing U-turns in a bid to find alternative routes.

The Parsonage Road level crossing was closed for 10 days in August and the Littlehaven crossing for three days while Network Rail installed new barriers and CCTV.

Network Rail said the upgrade from half barriers to full barriers and the installation of CCTV was necessary to improve safety for both road users and train passengers.

The crossings are now controlled by Network Rail’s state-of-the-art signalling centre at Three Bridges.

But many people are now complaining of having to wait in ‘ridiculously long queues.’

One person said the Parsonage Road crossing “always used to be a nice quick crossing, now queues are all the way up the road.”

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Another said: “It makes no sense, same trains same timetable, someone just got the timings wrong.”

And another: “They should have left the timings and control setup alone and just stuck to fixing the barriers.”

Network Rail spokesman Chris Denham said: “Upgrading the level crossings at Littlehaven and Parsonage Road has improved safety for road users and railway passengers, with full barriers monitored by signallers 24/7.

“Now they are in use we’re monitoring how long they are down and how they interact with the nearby crossing on the line, at Crawley.

“Signallers are learning how long each train takes and building up experience of how to best work the barriers to keep traffic flowing, while protecting the safety of trains and working with our rules.

“One aspect to note is that once an hour, every hour during the day, there is a period where three trains pass each other in the area in quick succession, which will mean the barriers are down for a longer time.

“As with all our crossings we will keep a close eye on them to make sure we keep inconvenience to a minimum.”