How did Network Rail respond?
Network Rail said the change, part of a £100m upgrade of the line, would improve safety. It said it ‘appreciated the importance of the gates’ and would donate them to the local community. How did the media cover it? The Sunday Telegraph was sympathetic to the residents’ group. It focused on Network Rail’s decision to remove the gates ‘in the dead of the night’. Likewise, the Daily Mail wrote: ‘A piece of railway history disappears overnight.’ The Ipswich Evening Star also talked of the ‘fury’ over the removal of the gates.
