Level crossing wait times going up from Sunday

We’re indebted to Ralph Cousins for the following cutting from the current issue of ‘Rail‘ magazine:

While this is good news for rail commuters, particularly those from all the new housing developments approved by Chichester District Council (CDC) along the A259 to the east of Emsworth, it’s going to mean longer wait times for traffic at all of the level crossings in Havant.

As we pointed out in ‘a detailed post on Havant’s ticking timebomb’, the railway crossings have a significant impact on traffic within and around the town centre. This new timetable will mean extended waits at the Southleigh Road crossing for vehicles and, more particularly, for pedestrians given the continued lack of a footbridge.

At the New Lane crossing, where matters have been made worse by the volume of Amazon traffic now using the route, we can expect longer tailbacks across the Eastern Road junction to the north and back past Fairfield School to the south.

At the Bedhampton crossing, just expect much more of the same, extended queues which will make the Bellway Homes development proposal for 90 homes at Palk Road seem even more questionable. (We’ll be focussing on the current state of this one in an upcoming post.)

We love public transport and welcome the new business opportunities that improvements to the rail service can bring. Increased frequency of services to Havant town centre from the stations along Chichester District Council’s A259 ‘ribbon development’ might also help reduce some of the town centre parking issues by taking a few car journeys off the road.

However, it really is time that the Hampshire County Council Highways planning officers started to understand the impact of the Havant rail crossings and took an holistic approach to their assessment of the impact of traffic and transport on Havant Borough Council’s portfolio of planning applications.