Crunch meeting called over rogue Shropshire railway barrier

Members of Wem Town Council said they want to meet the chief executive and chairman to discuss the problem level crossing on Aston Street.

It comes after councillors said they had been "getting as far as possible" with the company's representatives.

Mayor Mandy Meakin said: "I think we should now make contact with the chairman and chief executive for a face to face meeting, here in Wem.

"We want to make further improvements and reduce the barrier down time."

The crossing on the main route in and out of the town became automated in October 2013 and has sparked multiple problems with the barriers regularly slamming shut causing tailback traffic and safety fears.

Councillors met with project managers from Network Rail in December and were told that the long delays were down to the signalling system.

Councillor Chris Mellings said: "We have gone as far as we can with the infrastructure. Only by changing or improving it can further improvements be made."

Mr Mellings added that slight improvements had been made since software for the automated system was changed.

But he said there are still long delays caused by the barriers, particularly when freight trains passed through.

He said: "It is worse than the original system before it was automated.

"We have got as far as we can with the project team and they have raised issues, but it needs to go higher now.

"We need to highlight the issues we continue to face and see what can be done by improving the infrastructure."

Over the New Year, police were called to the crossing when lights warned of an approaching train but the barriers would not close. And once the fault was recognised, the barriers closed and traffic built up while engineers worked to fix the problem.

But councillors said they could not understand why other towns had not experienced the same issues.

In November it was revealed British Transport Police had to deal with 16 instances of drivers failing to obey road signs and nine instances of careless driving at the crossing over the Shrewsbury to Manchester line.

The figures, which cover April 2011 to September 2014, show officers also responded to 14 non-motoring offences involving the crossing.

Councillor Meakin said she thought there would be a "serious accident" and that a footbridge could help alleviate the problem.

Network Rail has said it is in contact with councillors and will continue to update them until a time for a meeting can be arranged.