Published: Thursday, 18th December, 2008 1:15pm

Rail scheme a 'nightmare'

by Lauren Everitt

A PROPOSED £710million high speed rail link will cause a "traffic nightmare" in a village, a shop owner has claimed.

The Airtrack scheme, using existing lines and some new sections of track, would see the Reading to Waterloo line extended from Staines to Heathrow and would involve increasing the down time of an already busy level crossing.

The scheme would mean an additional two trains per hour would travel through the level crossing on the A30 London Road, Sunningdale, in each direction between Reading and Heathrow, stopping at Bracknell and Wokingham.

Jale Gibbs, owner of Heels on Chobham Road, said that traffic is already terrible when the level crossing barrier is down.

She said: "There are a couple of other roads that get blocked easily, and Chobham Road is always backed up with traffic.

"Traffic stands still at rush hour, especially where Chobham Road meets the A30, and with extra trains it is going to be a nightmare."

British Airport Authority (BAA) general manager, Mike Noakes, gave a presentation on the Airtrack scheme at a meeting of the Royal Borough's planning and environment overview and scrutiny panel on Monday.

A team from BAA carried out research at the crossing by observing train and traffic operations. They then prepared a barrier down time model of the crossing which they said would not be greatly affected as the decrease in barrier open time is less than 10%.

However, Christine Bateson, ward councillor for Sunningdale, met with BAA bosses earlier this month to prove to them that the real barrier down time was not consistent with Airtrack's modelling. She said: "A large number of vehicles use the A30 when there are traffic jams or closures on the M3, meaning that the roads get congested in Sunningdale.

"Another problem is that the Royal Borough will have no benefit from the scheme as the trains from Waterloo will only stop at Wokingham and Bracknell."

Stephen Brown, head of the Royal Borough's highways and engineering, carried out a snapshot survey of the traffic and crossing closures in Sunningdale.

The research revealed that traffic picks up from 7am eastbound and from 8am westbound on weekdays, with around 8,000 vehicles travelling through the village per day.

In the morning periods, the level crossing was down for an average of 43 minutes out of 90, with maximum downtime of approximately 10 and a half minutes, whereas in the afternoons, the barrier was down for around 52 minutes out of 110, with a maximum of just over 14 minutes a time.

Business owners in the village fear the proposal will have a negative effect on trade.

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