State owned railway infrastructure company REFER is shutting off a crossing that will sever the main pedestrian artery of Olhão.
The crossing is used by thousands of pedestrians each day as they make their way to and from the city along Avenida Dr. Bernardino da Silva leading into the Avenida da Republica and its cafes, banks, shops and services.
A decision, on seemingly spurious ‘health and safety’ grounds has the parish council in uproar as not only does the decision affect thousands of pedestrians, many of them elderly, it was a decision made with zero local consultation.
Refer management says there is an alternative that locals can use, a vehicular underpass, but the parish council says this is little used for good reason, it is “difficult to access and it slopes steeply making it hard for those with limited mobility."
The underpass will easily become clogged with pedestrians as its width is between 1 and 1.5 metres. An added complication is a large grill at its lowest point which dogs find hard to walk on, causing them to slow to a crawl or baulk at the prospect.
There also are safety risks for elderly pedestrians using the underpass where the danger of being hit by speeding bicycles as the walkway narrows to less than 1 metre is significant as cyclists zap along with youthful exhuberance. Should bicyclists use the road, the danger of being in an accident with a vehicle then become a reality.
Parish council chairman Luciano de Jesus has issued a stiff note to the press in which he argues that this measure "cuts the parish in half and already several people, mainly elderly, have said they will be completely unable to get from one side to the other using the suggested alternative, the underpass where the slope is difficult for large part of the population."
Refer management blandly assures locals that the decision aims to improve the safety of the population, as its concern is for "the potential risk that will come with the imminent entry into service of new railway signaling.”
The decision is part of "a vast programme of eliminating level crossings" along the Algarve line, and "Olhão is to get automated crossings at its four crossings."
The Olhão crossing, that is being fenced off tonight under cover of darkness by burly contractors from civil engineering firm Almeida, sees trains pass along the track at low speeds as they decelerate to enter the station which is less than 100 metres away, or accelerate when leaving it.
Refer droned on about the legal aspects of its unilateral decision but failed to mention a single death or injury at the current, much used pedestrian crossing which has safety barriers each side and bold signage warning people to take care - "the solutions or measures are supported in the current legislation (Decree-Law No. 568/99 of 23 December) and are based on a rigorous case by case risk analysis that considered different aspects such as: the existence of alternatives, prevailing train speeds, the number of users or other factors of particular danger."
On this basis there should be no need to close the crossing as the alternative is more dangerous with pedestrians sharing limited space, the train speed is slow due the proximity of the station, there are thousands of happy pedestrian users of the safe crossing and there are no known other factors of particular danger.
If Refer's criteria is to close facilities because lots of people use them, this to many will seems a curious logic as locals point out that, inn terms of being hit by a train, each time the crossing is used is a separate statistical event.
The parish council mayor has no idea what Refer is talking about when it quotes decree laws as the company did not bother to consult him about its intentions, causing him to complain of “a lack of institutional respect, because the main people affected are our citizens who all deserve the respect of being listened to about their concerns and wishes."
