After realising red light jumping at levels crossing is rife and having established that people running in front of trains isn't exactly the best for health and safety statistics, Network Rail has shelled out £60k on a high-tech camera van.
The sixty grand mobile enforcement control room comes complete with PC Chris Sheppard watching herds of commuters and vehicules running across the railway as light flashes.
Check this video, mostly filmed at Mortlake station (the van is parked on a double yellow line..): BBC: New spy camera to check level crossings.
It's worth pointing out that the Sheen lane crossing does have a pedestrian bridge, allowing school children to cross instead of running across unlike at North Sheen station.
My take on this? Once more, they're trying to cure the symptoms rather than tackling the issue. Which is quite simply that a level crossing on a busy line (translate: closed for 15+ mn at a time) is archaic in a densely populated connurbation. The line should be buried or a tunnel dig, or else.
Final thought: the story doesn't say if the plod-van comes with a toilet?
