Plans for level crossing barriers welcomed

DONALD MacKay, whose elderly parents were killed when their car was hit by a train at a level crossing, has welcomed plans to add barriers at crossings across Scotland.

Network Rail announced yesterday it is to erect barriers at up to 23 open crossing sites over two years.

Trials of the new barriers are due to begin at Ardrossan, Ayrshire, within weeks. It is hoped to install the barriers to another 21 sites in the Highlands. They include the crossing at Halkirk in Caithness where Angus and Margaret MacKay, both 81, from Inverness, and Mr MacKay’s brother Donald, 66, from Latheron, Caithness, died in an accident at an open crossing in 2009.