Motorists 'punished' at level crossings, says MP

Last October, Egham residents reported having to wait up to 20 minutes for level crossings to open

Drivers are being "punished" by long delays at level crossings during Network Rail engineering works, a Surrey MP has said.

Dr Ben Spencer, the Conservative MP for Runnymede and Weybridge, told the House of Commons that waiting times are particularly bad in Egham, Addlestone and Chertsey.

He said delays were "punishing my constituents and engineering works and diversion routes just make that worse".

Mark Killick, director of engineering for Network Rail, previously said he recognised the "frustrations" of residents.

"We've got a really busy railway and a really busy road network, and we're working hard to get that balance right to keep everybody safe but to minimise the inconvenience to everybody," Mr Killick had added.

Dr Spencer requested a meeting "to discuss how we can mitigate and improve our level crossings, especially during these engineering works".

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh offered to pass on Dr Spencer's request for a meeting with the rail minister Sir Peter Hendy.

'Very foolish things'

Dr Spencer previously said on his YouTube channel that he had met with Network Rail to talk about optimisation, safety and delays.

He said "excessive queuing" was leading to some people "sadly doing very foolish things in terms of trying to skip the barriers".

It was also making people avoid the local shops and could potentially impact the emergency services, he claimed.