The installation of traffic lights at the Adamstown gates crossing last year was hailed as the solution to long-running safety concerns at Newcastle's worst bottleneck.
But ask shop owners and those who run the gauntlet each day and they will tell you that congestion is worse than ever, but the safety issues have been kicked down the road. In fact, some say they're worse.
An estimated 1700 vehicles per hour travel through the Glebe Road and Park Avenue intersection at the railway crossing during typical weekday peak periods.
The $3.3 million project, which involved installing traffic lights and introducing traffic flow changes at the intersection of Glebe Road and Park Avenue, was primarily designed to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
The traffic lights are meant to be timed with the gates to ensure smooth traffic flow. The changes also blocked the right turn at Wood Street to improve safety.
A year on and it's still not uncommon to be stuck at the gates for more than 10 minutes.
"Seriously, can you imagine any jurisdiction of Sydney that would accept this bullshit through two of its busiest suburbs," Luke Tilse recently said on social media while he was stuck at the gates.
"You just would not see it."
A Transport for NSW spokesman said there had only been one towaway crash at the intersection since the lights became operational in May 2025.
He said the activation time (the whole process from the audio warning to the closure of the gate) of the level crossing in 2025, was increased slightly by about 22 seconds.
The increase was due to the integration of the level crossing warning equipment with the nearby council road traffic light system, which went live in May 2025.
"The time it takes for the boom gates themselves to lower and raise has not changed," he said.
"The crossing is generally activated when a train departs Broadmeadow or Kotara. It reopens to road traffic once the train is clear of the crossing and there are no other trains approaching the area.
"Freight trains take additional time to cross the level crossing because it takes them a while to get to line speed."
Gates Hotel publican Dave Martin said the intersection upgrade had worked from a safety point of view, but nothing had changed when it came to congestion.
"There used to be an accident at the gates every day, but there haven't been any accidents on our side of the road since the lights went in," he said.
"The congestion is still the same. The lights have made no difference."
A couple of hundred metres up Glebe Road, Kylie Frearson, who operates 101 Property Solutions, said the area had become more hazardous because cars were driving through back streets in an attempt to avoid the gates.
"It's actually more dangerous," she said.
"There's probably been about five times when we have been afraid a car is going to come through our shopfront because they are zooming around so quickly in the side streets."
Ms Frearson said claims that the traffic lights were synced to the railway crossing were false.
"I sit there all the time when the lights are red and there is not a train in sight. The traffic is banked up past my office," she said.
The proposed Lower Hunter Freight Corridor, a 30-kilometre dedicated freight rail line from Fassifern to Hexham, is often spoken of as a solution to the Adamstown congestion problem.
The project has the backing of the region's business community and councils.
While the government has secured and protected the land for the future rail route, construction is due to take place over a 10-to-20 year window.
Others believe the only long-term fix for the Adamstown choke point is an underpass.
Various plans for an underpass or overpass, which would most likely require property acquisitions, have been discussed since the 1960s.
But the likelihood of this solution being realised seems remote given the state government sold a key parcel of land set aside for the project in 2021.
Traffic engineers who looked at the underpass proposal in 2014 estimated the project would cost $85 million. They concluded better value for money could be achieved by upgrading several key intersections around Adamstown and Kotara.
Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthrop told the Newcastle Herald that the Adamstown gates were regularly on his agenda when he met with the transport and regional transport ministers.
"The upgrades to traffic signals made last year has seen safety greatly improve at the intersection, with a significant decrease in accidents and their severity," he said.
He said the Lower Hunter Freight Corridor, a key initiative of the Hunter Strategic Regional Integrated Transport Plan, would eventually relieve pressure on the Adamstown Gates.
"Transport for NSW has carried out substantial work on the Lower Hunter Freight Corridor, which when completed will have a positive effect on the operation of the Adamstown level crossing," he said.
"This proposed link between Fassifern and Hexham will provide an alternate path for freight trains, eliminating the need for them to travel through Newcastle."
A City of Newcastle spokesman said the council would continue to advocate to the state government for the Lower Hunter Freight Corridor.
"This project would see freight trains move around the western side of Lake Macquarie, bypassing Newcastle to link in at Hexham, and would greatly improve traffic congestion around Adamstown train station as well as at the Islington - Hamilton North level crossing on Clyde Street," he said.
The spokesman said the installation of traffic signals at the intersection of Glebe Road and Park Avenue was designed to address the high number of accidents and provide improved connectivity for pedestrians and cyclists rather than reduce wait times at the level crossing.
