NEW SIGNALS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 108, 20 February 1950, Page 2

NEW SIGNALS

CROSSINGS AT ASHBURTON LONG AWAITED WORK BEGINS The long-protracted efforts of the Ashburton Borough Council, backed by considerable public interest and not a little agitation for the safety of railway crossings in Ashburton are at last bearing fruit. Lack of public unanimity, together with technical difficulties in the meeting of demands that all crossings should be protected have resulted in long delay, but there seem now reasonable grounds for hope that the anxiety caused by the speed of trains and the number of crossings An the middle of the town will |re allayed. Perhaps it is too much to expect that the tale of accidents is ended, but at least safety should be enhanced as a result of the work now begun. A start has been made with the installation of crossing signals at certain town crossings, work having been begun first at the Walnut Avenue crossing. Neither the stationmaster nor the officer in charge of the work has been advised as to how many crossings are ultimately to be done, but apparatus for three signals is at the Ashburton station and the three on the present schedule are Walnut Avenue, Havelock Street and Tancred Street.

The signals are of the flashlight type and are actuated by the train on inward journeys and by the station staff for trains leaving Ashburton.