Crossing set to be handed over but won’t be up and running for months

Town train services

on hold until spring

MINEHEAD will remain without West Somerset Railway passenger services until next spring - two years since its station was first marooned at the end of the line by the closure of the Seaward Way level crossing, railway officials revealed this week.

Three years after the £12 million replacement crossing was first mooted, contractors Amey have begun to install new barriers and the road will be closed overnight on October 11 and 19 before a planned handover of the state-of-the art crossing to WSR on October 21.

In a previous joint statement WSR and Somerset County Council, which is largely financing the project, had said that work had been hampered by the Covid-19 crisis but that it was hoped to run trains into Minehead once again by the middle of October.

But this week, those hopes were dashed when a WSR spokesman told the Free Press: “October 21 is the target for the handover of the crossing but that does not mean that WSR is able to run passenger trains into Minehead from this date.

“Final clearances have to be undertaken with both Somerset County Council and the Office of Road and Rail, let alone completing the all-important staff training and competency testing for drivers, guards and signal staff using the new crossing, which is totally different to the one it replaces.

“As a result the level crossing will not see passenger trains running from Minehead this year, other than occasional stock moves, testing and training, but normal operations should start with a bang early in spring 2022.

“The WSR is looking forward to restoring its usual services from Minehead and understands and apologises for any disappointment some local people will feel about this, but the railway has had no choice in following this approach.”

The decision to replace the crossing was made in 2018 when it was found that the existing half-barrier, controlled automatically by trains ‘was worn out’ and could fail, causing a dangerous situation.

The new crossing will have substantial double barriers across the road and be controlled from the station signal box. A report on the replacement said: “This is not an heritage level crossing but a railway level crossing taking the best of 2021 technology which enables our steam trains and road-users to use it with 2021 expectations of safety.”

In what he called ‘a report from isolation,’ Martyn Snell, chairman of the Friends of Minehead Station, said: “This has been a very strange time to be associated with the station in that we have not seen any passengers travelling by train for nearly 20 months.

“The wonderful staff have worked hard to keep the station looking more than presentable with flowers, paint and necessary repairs. The Friends of Minehead Station have organised small events once a month to keep the platform alive and raise a little cash for essentials while we look a little enviously at every other station on this wonderful railway, which, at the very least, sees passenger trains pass through.”

Mr Snell added: “The station will survive, as will the staff who work here. Once open, travellers will see two refurbished water towers, a tidy well-painted station and smiling staff to welcome. It will be a great day for the station, and the town of Minehead.”