A FAULT with a set of barriers at the level crossing in Bramley led to long waits for queuing traffic.

The barriers in Sherfield Road were out of action for two hours on the afternoon of Monday, May 22 while engineers from Network Rail were called to fix them.

Carol Cairns, of The Smithy, Bramley, got caught in the queues when she left work at the Bramley Village Bakery at around 3pm.

The 41-year-old told The Gazette: “The barriers were acting odd. It was a bit worrying because the lights started flashing and the barriers were not coming down.

“Nobody knew what to do and there was a big queue waiting by the barriers.”

She said that at one point, she saw traffic queue from one side of the crossing back to Sherfield-on-Loddon.

Nick King, media relations manager at Network Rail, said that the problem was caused by a member of the public at 2.55pm.

He said: “What happened was a member of the public put the level crossing out of sync by pulling at them.

“People do this quite frequently, and sometimes will even try and raise the barriers. Level crossings are one of the biggest risk areas on railways, and people should not tamper with them.”

The barriers were fixed by 4.40pm. Mr King said CCTV footage would be looked at as part of the investigation.