A protest meeting has been organised in a final attempt to save a ground level pedestrian crossing over railway tracks at Wareham in Dorset, after 12 years of controversy.
North Wareham Action Group and Wareham Town Trust have urged as many people as possible to be at Wareham station at 11 am on Saturday 1st February 2025, ahead of a meeting between the local MP and the government’s rail minister.
An average 860 people use the crossing each day, of which 37 percent are elderly, cyclists, children or pram and pushchair users
Crossing costs £120,000 a year to run
MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole Vikki Slade, whose constituency includes Wareham, has secured a private meeting with rail minister Lord Peter Hendy, to discuss the lifeline level crossing and to ‘bang heads together’ to find a solution which will keep it open.
An online petition at Change.org to save the level crossing has raised almost 2,500 names in support, from local residents who rely on the crossing to get between Wareham’s largest housing estates and the town’s schools, shops and health facilities.
Although there is a pedestrian bridge crossing the line, the steps are too steep for the disabled, parents with prams, or cyclists.
The current solution, a manned pedestrian crossing with electronic gates to stop the public using it when there are trains, costs £120,000 a year to staff, and Network Rail says that the crossing will close regardless in 2038 when the land lease expires.
The solution that most residents prefer is for the electronic gates to be automated but that requires the consent of Network Rail and the Office of Rail and Road.
Other attempts to find an alternative answer over the last two decades, including a ramp a quarter of a mile long and lifts to the top of the existing bridge, have been rejected as unworkable.
Wareham MP Vikki Slade has a meeting with Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy about the crossing
“We can finally put this issue to bed”
Vikki Slade told the House of Commons on Thursday 9th January 2025:
“The residents of Wareham have been trying to get automatic electronic gates for 20 years. Network Rail’s latest excuse is that it is for the Office of Rail and Road, and the Office of Rail and Road says that it is for Network Rail.
“Will the Secretary of State meet me so that we can bang heads together and get this resolved once and for all?”
She has since confirmed a meeting with Lord Hendy will take place in the next few weeks and said:
“I am really pleased that after all this time, agreement has been reached for a meeting with the rail minister so that we can finally put this issue to bed.”
The current footbridge over the railway line can only be accessed by steep steps
“One of the key concerns in Wareham right now”
Vikki Slade added:
“The level crossing in Wareham is one of the key concerns in the constituency right now. Dorset County Council failed to secure a proper right of way over the land many decades ago and so had to secure a lease from Network Rail to enable public use ever since.
“In recent years, safety requirements have meant the crossing is fenced to prevent people accessing the railway and risking injury and staff are provided by Dorset Council to operate gates there.
“I am acutely aware that this presents a significant financial burden to the council and that the current lease from Network Rail is due to end in the 2030s. Network Rail told me they are unwilling to extend or renew the lease beyond its current end point.
“It is imperative that a solution is found as it would be completely unacceptable for the town to be dissected by the loss of this crossing. The community has been campaigning for the gates to be upgraded to automatic gates, which is by far the most straightforward solution.”
An artist’s impression of a 2018 plan for a quarter of a mile long zigzag ramp which was rejected as impractical
“Ramped bridge would cut town in half”
Local actor Edward Fox, who regularly uses Wareham station, has been invited to attend the protest, as has Mid Dorset and North Poole MP Vikki Slade.
Edward Fox, who has starred in films including A Bridge Too Far and The Day of the Jackal, told the BBC in 2024:
“I am well aware that the ground level crossing is of vital importance to many, particularly a large population in the north of the town, who rely on the crossing to access health care, shops, jobs, schools and so on in the town centre and currently walk or cycle into town.
“A ramped bridge would cut the town in half, an extraordinary notion in itself, isolate vulnerable residents for whom it would be impossible to use the steep ramps and prevent school children from cycling to school.
“It would have an eternally irreversible impact on the town’s future as well as being a permanent blot on the town’s historic station.”
Edward Fox, seen here in A Bridge Too Far (1977), is supporting the campaign to save Wareham’s crossing
“Contrary to the Equality Act”
Wareham resident Nick Fagan, who set up an online petition to save the town’s ground level pedestrian railway crossing, said:
“Hundreds of people use the crossing every day to visit friends and relatives and access the town’s facilities – the shops, schools, play groups, nurseries, doctor’s surgery, dentists and other facilities.
“These include cyclists, elderly and disabled people and parents with young children in prams and pushchairs who absolutely rely on this safe and convenient surface level crossing.
“Any attempt to close it and replace it with a ramped bridge or with a pavement on the flyover next to the main A351 Poole road would add significantly to a journey between the north and south sides of the town up a steep gradient.
“It would simply be unpleasant, inconvenient and impractical for an able-bodied person and impossible for anyone with a disability or who is elderly, and the only means of getting from one station platform to another for an ambulant disabled person, contrary to the Equality Act.”
Network Rail says the crossing has a history of misuse and has concerns about the speed of passing trains
“Crossing has a history of misuse”
Network Rail says that the crossing has been misused in the past and that shutting the crossing is the most effective way of removing risk, adding that the track speed limit is around 80 mph, whereas the limit at similar crossings like in Poole is just 15 mph.
A Network Rail spokesperson said:
“The crossing has a history of misuse, to the point where our regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, issued us an improvement notice which led to the introduction of electronic gates and crossing attendants, funded by Dorset Council.
“We are committed to working closely with Dorset Council, local stakeholders, and the community to find a way forward.”
Steps for the footbridge over the rail crossing are too steep for prams, pushchairs and cycles
“The time has come to act”
Dorset cabinet member Jon Andrews said:
“Dorset Council is not closing the crossing, we are trying to find a permanent step free pedestrian access connecting Northport to Wareham town centre so that people can cross the railway safely.
“The current arrangements are unsustainable, both practically and financially. Introducing crossing attendants was always intended to be a short-term solution, and currently costs taxpayers £120,000 each year and rising.
“Keeping the current system would still result in the crossing being completely closed by Network Rail in 2038, and would be exorbitantly expensive in the meantime.
“Previous councils and key stakeholders have discussed the situation and debated potential solutions for many years, but the time has come to act.”
A protest in 2024 drew 250 people and organisers are hoping to get many more on Saturday 1st February 2025
Further information
- An online petition to save Wareham’s crossing can be signed at Change.org
- Local residents wanting to comment can email Vikki Slade at vikki.slade.mp@parliament.uk or write to her constituency office at 14 York Road, Broadstone, Dorset BH18 8ET
