FOLLOWING your article in The Forester of September 18, 'Still dicing with death', it is only a matter of time before some impatient pedestrian decides that they will cross the line at Lydney station and get hit by a train. I have lived in Lydney all my life, traffic and pedestrians always used the underpass when the gates closed, in the past the gates were only down for a short period of time, now they are shut for anything up to 15 or 20 minutes. Is it any wonder that people take a chance?

For Network Rail to accept that there is a problem (54 incidents) and threaten to prosecute people who enter the crossing whilst the gates are down is ludicrous, to quote cost as a reason not to upgrade the underpass is short sighted and penny pinching, how much is a life worth?

If the owners of the underpass are not known why has Network Rail locked it off?

When guarding machinery at a work place the guards must be robust enough to prevent the operators from harm even if they do something stupid, should this not be the case with the barriers? Any fit able bodied person can climb over them or force their way around them.

A cheaper option would be to put a pedestrian bridge crossing over the line, not a problem with this as Network Rail own the land on both sides, there are two excellent fabricators of steel work on the Trading Estate, Mabeys and Remnant Engineering, who I am sure would quote and supply a bridge crossing at half the price quoted by Network Rail to upgrade the underpass. So come on Network Rail, do something before you have blood on your hands.

Jon Mills