I have had to wait a fair while at several level crossings over the years, but taking a trip to London this weekend with my folding bike I found one that beat them all. I took a train to Mortlake and then had to cycle south, crossing the level crossing, and later had to return that way (though not to catch the train). Sadly I didn't actually time my waits, but I'm sure the wait from exiting the station was well in excess of ten minutes, and 5 trains crossed during that period. When I returned a few hours later. as I cycled along Mortlake High Street there was a long queue of vehicles waiting, and I thought to myself "That's good, I won't have to wait that long this time." How wrong I was. The wait was at least as long as the wait in the morning, and several of the people waiting around me were getting extremely frustrated judging by their calls on their phones they were having. There seemed to be a gap of well over 5 minutes (it felt like about ten) when no train passed by, and people just couldn't understand why the crossing didn't open.

Yes this crossing, and others I have had to wait at for several minutes, had footbridges alongside, but they are always very steeply graded steps, of no use at all to those with mobility issues or heavy luggage or cannot manage their bike and luggage up steps that steep. On the return journey, I noticed that several pedestrians and some cyclists, who had been waiting longer than me, eventually gave up waiting and tried the footbridge route, not all with success.

So I wondered which crossings people have found themselves having to wait for the longest times. Before this experience, my longest have been when visiting Lincoln, and using the crossing immediately west of the station. I also travel to Shoreham-by-Sea a lot and that can involve long waits at the crossing next to the station, though on average it isn't usually too bad.

 
When was this? The communications failure at around midday affected not just GSM-R, but phones and even signalling for a short period. Most SWR trains stopped where they were for 30 minutes and then started up, not all immediately, and were not in their paths for some time.

Mortlake  is a busy crossing (about 14 tph) and the timetable tries to have trains arrive in clusters, leaving several gaps of over 5 minutes in each hour. But opening the barriers depends that gap in the trains happening, and on knowing in advance that it will. I imagine that was difficult today.