I live in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and our metropolitan are has an unusually large number of level crossings for a major metropolis. Now I've heard we had plenty of money to remove level crossings at that time, but it was instead spent on the Great Ocean Road, which seems to have been built as a tourist attraction.
So suppose that the money spent on the Great Ocean Road were instead put into level crossing removal. We would have fewer remaining level crossings.
Even by the interwar period, and that's when Melbourne suburban was electrified, many of these level crossings were already a relic of the past, even though semaphore signalling was still in daily use network wide and nearly every level crossing in the metropolitan area had manually operated swing gates.
So by removing level crossings at this time, there would have been a considerable reduction in the number of gatekeepers along the line, even with signalman and gatekeepers still employed at the crossings that remain. So level crossings may have remained maunally actuated, but maybe still upgraded, but with gates or (full) barriers still operated by signalmen, rather than being replaced by automatic half-barriers.
So suppose that the money spent on the Great Ocean Road were instead put into level crossing removal. We would have fewer remaining level crossings.
Even by the interwar period, and that's when Melbourne suburban was electrified, many of these level crossings were already a relic of the past, even though semaphore signalling was still in daily use network wide and nearly every level crossing in the metropolitan area had manually operated swing gates.
So by removing level crossings at this time, there would have been a considerable reduction in the number of gatekeepers along the line, even with signalman and gatekeepers still employed at the crossings that remain. So level crossings may have remained maunally actuated, but maybe still upgraded, but with gates or (full) barriers still operated by signalmen, rather than being replaced by automatic half-barriers.