Dave Thompson MSP

Highlands and Islands MSP Dave Thompson has been contacted by teachers following an extremely worrying malfunction of signals at an open level crossing outside the school gates.

Teachers arriving at Dingwall Academy shortly after 8am on Monday Nov 22 thought nothing of being stopped by flashing lights at an ungated level crossing since they knew a train passed the school around that time early each morning.

However after waiting for a few minutes with no sign of any train, the signals switched off and those held up by the warning lights cautiously made their way on towards the school.

News of the malfunction horrified Rector Graham MacKenzie when he was told by business and computing teacher Lindsay Grieve, who had been in the queue of traffic which stopped when the lights were activated at about 8.15am.

"The concern is that this is a major secondary school within a few hundred yards of two unmanned level crossings," Mr MacKenzie said. "If the lights flash when no train is passing then the pupils will be less vigilant in future and will think that flashing lights means only that a train might be coming.

"I am aware of people saying this has happened before. That is worrying because at lunchtime the pupils going into Dingwall have to go over the level crossing."

Mrs Grieve added: "My big concern is that this happened outside a very large secondary school with more than 1,100 pupils.

"I reported this to Network Rail's helpline and they took details of the time and place. Now I've also told Dave Thompson so I hope something can be done.

"Every lunchtime hundreds of pupils all come out at once and go over the level crossing. It doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened if the signals failed at that time of day."

Mr Thompson, who has campaigned for barriers to be added to the 21 open level crossings in the Highlands since his election in 2007, was also concerned to hear of this latest incident of signal malfunction at such a level crossing, especially since his office had recently been asked to make representations to Network Rail and the Office of the Rail Regulator following the latest similar incident at the nearby Bunchrew level crossing last month.

"News of this type of malfunction is reaching me with depressing regularity and this is even more worrying when it happens on level crossings where lights and sirens are the only signal of an oncoming train," he said.

"When motorists and pedestrians have only this to rely upon to stay safe, it is vital that public confidence is not undermined by this type of incident. Especially when we are dealing with a route used by hundreds of children every day, it is vital that everyone can be confident that lights are reliable.

"The last thing we need is for children to think that these signals mean only that a train might be coming and decide to try their luck and gamble on crossing."

He added: "Less than a month ago I was looking at a similar incident on the open crossing at Bunchrew and it seems that this type of incident is becoming increasingly common.

"That is why it is more important than ever for this type of crossing where the signals are going wrong to be properly maintained before the public start losing confidence in the signals and taking a chance by crossing anyway. While the addition of barriers wouldn't be able to prevent a faulty signal, they would make it less likely for people to gamble in this way and risk their own lives and those of others by crossing anyway."

Note:

Press release issued last month in response to earlier complaints about a similar malfunction at Bunchrew.