Manual level crossings are very historic, but rare with only an handful left across the Uk. But, how many are left in the uk? Today I am going to awnser that question.
My Local Manual Level Crossing - Grain Crossing!
Where I live, in my local county of Kent as well as South-East England, there is only one Manual level crossing left. It sits at the end of the 12-Mile Frieght-Only Grain Branch Line in North Kent. A few frieght trains cross it each day to go to/from the several frieght terminals and sidings at the end of the line. Immediately to left of the level crossing sits an signal box. Which opened the same year as the manual level crossing in 1882 (141 years ago!). However the signal box is not staffed at all times. Only when a train is due the network rail staff will arrive and operate the manual gates.
Network rail plans to close Kent's Last Manual Level crossing (Grain Level Crossing) by the end of this year (2023). The network rail staff work at one of the freight terminals/sidings. The frieght-only line is due to reopen as a passenger line (as far as Hoo peninsula) in 2024. Funded by Medway Council.
How many are there? - The Total
Different areas of the country have different amount of manual level crossing, Southern England has only one, to my knowledge, which is the one that was mentioned above. Northern England has more than southern England, with the Cumbrian Coast Line in Cumbria having 8 in total, the most for one individual line. The total awnser being revealed to me by Network Rail's Freedom of information (FOI) team Is 107.
However two manual levels crossing have closed since the data based for April 2022. The two that closed were Wye and Chartham in Kent on the Ashford to Ramsgate (Via Canterbury) line, which closed and were replaced by automatic barriers in December 2022.
So the number of manual crossings left in the uk (at the time of writing) is 105. More than expecting. However manual level crossings are quiet rare. Please find a table below from Network Rail which shows how many of each type of crossing there are.
Thanks for reading, hope your enjoyed this blog and have a good day!
Dominic (All the train)
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