Tackley Railway Station - Level Crossing

Level Crossing

The GWR sited Tackley halt just north of a level crossing on the road linking Tackley with the village of Kirtlington. This had a crossing keeper on duty 24 hours a day and the gates were interlocked with the railway signalling system. However, the route later ceased to be a through road between the two villages, so the railway company withdrew the crossing keeper and redesignated the crossing to be operated by its users.

It was then made an occupation crossing and the only vehicles allowed to use it were those authorised to have access to Tackley Estate. It had large gates for vehicles and small ones for pedestrians. This was still the case in 2009, but by 2012 the large gates had been replaced by fences and the surface for vehicles to cross the tracks had been removed (see photo).

The crossing is used by a bridleway linking Tackley and Kirtlington, which is now also part of National Cycle Route 51. The crossing is also the only passenger access to and from the "up" platform (i.e. for trains from Banbury or to Oxford, Reading and London). As of 2009 Network Rail had 165 unprotected level crossings related to its stations, 26 of which were defined as "user-worked" or "footpath crossings". However, Tackley crossing is the only one that combines station access with a public bridleway.