Unmanned Level Crossings

[Hoddy]

On the radio this morning someone said that there are no level crossings in France. I can't quite believe this and yet I can't think of any particular one. Do you know of any ?

Hoddy

[Coral]

In Pamiers.  The road that goes east to Mirepoix from the south end of Pamiers goes over a level crossing. and I know I have been over others in my travels.

Coral - soon to be in Ariege - I hope

[JohnM]

I'm sure I've seen at least one, but now I try to think where, I can't place it. Certianly the level crossing in my village was changed to a bridge in the 60's or 70's.

 

[SaligoBay]

LOL, what a strange little myth!!   Of course there are level crossings in France, they even have red-and-white barriers and red traffic lights to tell the cars to stop.   In some ways France is really quite modern. 

[Russethouse]

Was this to do with last nights train derailment at Ufton Nervet?

Its unclear yet but there seems to be some thought that it was either some one chancing their luck, dashing through or even a car reversed deliberatley onto the line.

[Teejay]

[quote]LOL, what a strange little myth!! Of course there are level crossings in France, they even have red-and-white barriers and red traffic lights to tell the cars to stop. In some ways France is reall...[/quote]

Love the irony. And what's more they even have a name for them, passage à niveau.

(took the liberty of starting a sentence with And)

[Val_2]

Plenty round here with the Brest/Paris TGV line closeby and all the little branch lines. Must say I have never seen one with the barriers down and the lights flashing but then the traffic on the branch lines seems very little anyway.

[Boghound]

[quote]Plenty round here with the Brest/Paris TGV line closeby and all the little branch lines. Must say I have never seen one with the barriers down and the lights flashing but then the traffic on the branc...[/quote]

Good God Val. Do you know that the Old King has died?

[Val_2]

Sorry Boggie, its a bit too cryptic for me to understand on a Sunday afternoon with all that grub I've just eaten washed down well with good vino collapso.

[letrangere]

There are many but the one that immediately comes to mind is on the main(!) road between Cordes and St Antonin (81).  Too long spent outside Europe ensures we always accelerate across level crossings even when the gates are up, and still look left and right to make sure a train isn't coming, fully expecting to see one. 

We were in India at the time of the horrific Ladbroke Grove crash.  Local people were surprised at the news thinking only they had to endure such catastrophes.  It shouldn't happen.

M

[Tourangelle]

There is one at Langeais near Tours.  Also at St Romain de Popey near Lyon.  Has anybody ever seen one on a TGV line though?

Jane

[Alcazar]

I wonder if the author of the bit about no level crossings in France meant that there are none on the TGV lines?

That's certainly true, but then, the trains on there are travelling at 300kph, and some will reach 350kph on the TGV Est, unlike our maximum of 200kph.

Still, any train travelling at over 60mph will take quite a way to stop.

Alcazar

[SaligoBay]

Is this entire thread a wind-up?   There are at least 2 near us where you can get stopped at the lights and barriers and watch the TGV go hurtling past.

TGVs don't ALWAYS go at full speed either.  Just as well when a lorry carrying swimming pool bases got stuck on the level crossing - flying swimming pools, Batman!

[Racerbear02]

Hoddy you really should get out more

There are loads of level crossings round here ( 02 )  there is even one which crosses the N2 near Villers Cotteret much to the pleasure of the Parisian commuters.

Like any technology, they are only as safe as the operators

[Hoddy]

No, it’s not a wind-up. It’s exactly as I said I heard it on the radio this morning, not from some member of the public, but from a spokesperson for some rail organisation or other. My reaction was, “That’s nonsense” and I tried to think of an example and when I couldn’t bring anything to mind I thought that perhaps it was right.

Thanks for all the responses - I’m wondering now did he mean specifically the half-automated ones or was he badly mistaken. I really dislike it when people in the mass media trot out things like this as though they are absolutely true and are then not challenged on them.

Hoddy

[letrangere]

TGVs don't ALWAYS go at full speed either.

Glad we're not the only ones to notice this.  Maddening when you've got a plane to catch and the damn thing is stooging around the Paris suburbs with OH moaning, "we should have driven". Not always, I hasten to add, but more often than one would expect.  M

[letrangere]

TGVs don't ALWAYS go at full speed either.

Glad we're not the only ones to notice this.  Maddening when you've got a plane to catch and the damn thing is stooging around the Paris suburbs with OH moaning, "we should have driven". Not always, I hasten to add, but more often than one would expect.  M

[letrangere]

TGVs don't ALWAYS go at full speed either.

Glad we're not the only ones to notice this.  Maddening when you've got a plane to catch and the damn thing is stooging around the Paris suburbs with OH moaning, "we should have driven". Not always, I hasten to add, but more often than one would expect.  M

[Clarkkent]

TGVs only travel at full speed on specially constructed lignes a grandes vitesse. On other lines they travel at the prevailing line speed. A feature of LGVs is that there is seperation of grade - flyovers when routes diverge and NO level crossings. However, from Paris to Bordeaux, for instance, the LGV ends at Tours and the remaining route uses the "classic" main line, level crossings and all!

A number of people, including the respected transport journalist Christian Wolmer, have pointed out that the death rate at level crossings in many European countries (including France) is several times greater than in Britain. From my own observation, the warning time for an approaching train is very much shorter in France than in Britain. There is a level crossing on the N10 north of Tours where the oncoming train can be seen before the lights start to flash and the half barrier comes down.

Maddening when you've got a plane to catch and the damn thing is stooging around the Paris suburbs with OH moaning, "we should have driven".

But was the train running to time? The fact that a TGV is travelling slowly doesn't mean that it has abandonned the timetable!

[letrangere]

First off, apologies for fact that my posting appeared 3 times over, most peculiar but seem to remember Forum was exceptionally slow this morning for some reason or another.

Clark, thank you so much for explaining more about the TGV for we have often wondered.  Interestingly, it's the Paris-Bordeaux line that we know the best so your comment that the LGV finishes at Tours explains a lot.   And presumably it uses regular lines as it snakes through Paris up to Montparnasse or loops round to CDG?  Must admit, on reflection, don't ever recall having arrived late on a TGV.  It's just they don't always bomb along as one would expect them to.

M

[IAN_S]

I was recently in Quillan in a queue at a crossing with it's barriers down and locals know that there are only 2 trains a day, if that. After a very short while cars began to wind their way around the barriers and even stopped now and again to let the opposite queue have their turn! Very democratic.

I was amazed however as many of the car plates were out of department and how could they know there was not a train coming just round the corner?

I have to say I was not prepared to buck the system and stop the traffic so I took my turn with the others. The barriers of course went up in the middle of all this potential disaster.

[Mistral]

There are two level crossings in my town. Since it's on the main Avignon to marseilles line, they're in action quite a bit. I usually have to stop on my way to work.

What you can still find in france are level crossings without barriers, just the flashing lights. Most level crossing accidents in france are on this sort of crossing. There was a nasty one last year if I remember right.

[Val_2]

Anyone still disputing level crossings on main TGV lines should read the back page of todays Le Telegramme - UN TGV PERCUTE UNE VOITURE. A Paris-Quimper TGV crashed into a car on a level crossing yesterday morning at Crissé in Sarthe,killing one of the occupants and mangling the car.Other trains were diverted for approx 40mins. Investigations are continuing

[Hoddy]

Thanks for that Val2 - my other half hheard the same assertion on television later in the day on Sunday. Unfortunately he also failed to notice exactly who said it so I can't take it up with them.

Hoddy

[Clarkkent]

Anyone still disputing level crossings on main TGV lines should read the back page of todays Le Telegramme - UN TGV PERCUTE UNE VOITURE. A Paris-Quimper TGV crashed into a car on a level crossing yesterday morning at Crissé in Sarthe,killing one of the occupants and mangling the car.Other trains were diverted for approx 40mins. Investigations are continuing

The railway line in question is not an LGV, but an ordinary non-high speed railway line. The LGV ends at Connerre which is on the Paris side of Le Mans. The car on the level crossing could have been struck by any train using that line, it just happened to be a TGV using a non-LGV line.

There are no level crossings on LGVs.