Cycle Route Between Middlesbrough & Guisborough

#48: Denny - morton carr level crossing

Network Rail seek to close over 700 field crossings "in the interests of safety" It is a numbers exercise to improve safey by closing crossings, regardless of whether there is a genuine safety issue! There have been several very near misses over the years at Morton Carr light controlled level crossing  when the "infallible" lights fail to work. The last one occured  today 7th March when a diesel train crossed against the lights and stopped at the other side. The previous time, about a month ago, the steam locomotive Sir Nigel Greslely stopped short of the crossing until permission was obtained to proceed with caution.The line of sight towards Nunthorpe is non existent for anyone in a motor vehicle and that will be raised with the area crossings manager tomorrow, together with other concerns including the cattle grid (which was provided to make  the original crossing gates and crossing keeper redundant) and which is not fit for purpose now and is covered with noisy steel plates to stop it collapsing. They have plans to upgrade the crossing to automatic half barriers and being the adjacent landowner I can guarantee that, if we don't get any sense out of them, they will have to access the crossing via their own railway line and not via Morton Carr Lane. For the record, we do not obstruct or object to cyclists in any way and we do work very closely with the Redcar & Cleveland rights of way officer.