To ask why level crossing gates close

[Wonderful9999]

ten minutes before the train comes even in rush hour. For cars and people on foot if someone was walking there would still be space for them to get out even with the gates closed

Because a not insignificant percentage of the general public become lunatics when they come across a level crossing.

Because some twat would think they can cross even as the train is approaching and scrapping a body off the front of a train delays everyone far more than 10 minutes.

Gives you time to get a stalled car off the tracks before it causes a potentially fatal accident could be one reason 🤷🏼‍♀️

Because you need to bake in the fact impatient pricks will always try and beat the gate. With a 10 min buffer period there is less chance of them being reduced to human soup by the 9am express to Paddington.

No expert but most level crossings are likely triggered by a train passing a certain point on the track, regardless of whether it’s a high speed, non stopping train, or a slow, stops at every stop train. The slight inconvenience of keeping traffic and pedestrians waiting is far outweighed by the risk of injury/death/derailment if they closed a fraction too late!! Plus as others have said, a scary proportion of people are idiots who think they can skip through as the gates are shutting.

For at least a dozen life saving reasons.

They don’t here. A few minutes yes but not 10. The most time I wait is about 6 mins and that’s for a train going in and then out again.

Where I live we have loads of crossings, manned station ones and the tiny ones where you have to phone to cross.

For all the above reasons and it's not 10 minutes, typically it's 3 minutes, I used to live by one

Also, if a car ahead stalls meaning the road ahead is blocked.

Numerous reasons - https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Enhancing-Level-Crossing-Safety-2019-2029.pdf

A childhood friend died crossing a railway aged 11 (designated pedestrian crossing area). it’s actually very difficult to estimate the speed of a train and they can’t react like a car eg swerve or stop easily. Not to mention if they derail its 100s of people injured or dead on board. so they allow a wide margin as they should.

It will only be 10 minutes in a very very few locations.

The 'barrier down' sequence is triggered by a train passing a certain point (often automatically, with a treadle between the tracks). How far the treadle is from the crossing depends on how fast trains go on that bit of track.

Once the crossing barrier is closed and is proven clear (eg. By a signaller checking by camera that noone is on the crossing) then the train will be able to pass over the crossing. Typically, a crossing will be closed and proven clear about 30 seconds before a train passes.

Because trains can take up to just over a mile to come to a stop, depending on what speed they are travelling.

Because common sense says to remove any risk of high moving train and vehicle/pedestrian colliding.

leaving it to the last minute massively increases the chance of accident

Can't believe this is a question to be honest. It is to keep everyone safe.

It might be 10 minutes for a slow stopping train, but a high-speed express will do the distance in 2 minutes.

The system can't adjust for different train speeds

It's usually much less. Could be longer if there's a train approaching either side. DH works on the railway

To give people who are on the crossing when the gates start to drop time to get off the crossing before the train comes.

It’s only been 10mins at the one by us when the bars come down for 3-4 trains in a row. At times it is a 10min wait between two of the later trains.

They genuinely don't do it just to piss people off.
It's so that there's a little window of opportunity to try and remove a stuck vehicle when the inevitable idiot tries to jump the crossing. DH worked on the rail for years and had to attend a number of "incidents". The number of people who ignore the barriers and give it a go anyway is terrifying. It can take a mile and a half for a train to stop, so anything that helps there not be anything on the track when the train comes by is worth the minor inconvenience to people waiting for a few minutes.

Maybe you have a set up like the the level crossing near me used to have, where both platforms of the station were within the trigger distance for the crossing gates closing or reopening, so they would go down as soon as the train entered the station and stay down until it had left and cleared the area. If there was a train going both ways, which there often was, the gates would stay down for ages. They have now moved the station a bit further away so trains going towards the crossing don’t enter the trigger area until they leave the platform, and those going away leave it before they stop.

The ones near my work are 3 minutes before a train is due.