Mind the Gates — UK level crossings MCP Server

by mindthegates

answering

Mind the Gates — UK level crossings is answering right now. Last checked 7 min ago. It exposes 4 tools.

Live barrier status and closure forecasts for ~1,600 UK level crossings. Public data, no auth.

Uptime history 63 hours of history

63 hours agonow

100.0%

Uptime 24h

92 of 92 checks

Tools

read from the server

175 ms

Response time

average over 24h

open, no key

Access

streamable-http

Connect this server

Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 7 min ago.

Claude Code Claude Desktop Codex Cursor VS Code

run in your terminal

claude mcp add crossings --transport http https://mindthegates.uk/mcp

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "crossings": {
      "url": "https://mindthegates.uk/mcp"
    }
  }
}

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.crossings]
url = "https://mindthegates.uk/mcp"

.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "crossings": {
      "url": "https://mindthegates.uk/mcp"
    }
  }
}

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "crossings": {
      "url": "https://mindthegates.uk/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Available tools 4

Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on. If a tool disappears, we record the date.

crossings

crossings_near

Nearest listed level crossings to a point, closest first. Returns one line per crossing — distance in MILES, then name, type, region and a status URL ending .md. Distance is straight-line (great circle) between the point and the crossing, NOT distance by road or along the railway: it answers 'which crossings are near this place', not 'which will this train reach next'.

list_crossings

Search UK level crossings by name, URL word or region name (substring, case-insensitive). Returns one line per match — name, crossing type, region, and a status URL ending .md that returns that crossing's live markdown status. Reports the total match count and returns the first `limit`; there is no pagination, so narrow the query to see different matches. Names starting with the query sort first.

busiest

busiest_today

The ten UK level crossings with the most predicted road-closed time today. Takes no arguments. Each line gives the rank, crossing name, predicted minutes closed across the whole day, and a status URL ending .md. The ranking is computed from today's timetable once per day, shortly after UK midnight, and the build timestamp is included in the reply — it is a whole-day total, not a live reading, so use crossing_status for what a barrier is doing now. Briefly unavailable right after a restart while the first build runs.

crossing

crossing_status

Live barrier status, the next-30-minute closure timeline and approaching trains for ONE crossing, as markdown. Forecasts are rebuilt per request from the live train feeds, so the answer changes minute to minute. Informational only — never a substitute for the signals and barriers at the crossing itself. An ambiguous name returns the candidate URL words to choose between; an unknown one asks you to call list_crossings first.

Endpoints

URL	Transport	State	Latency	Checked
https://mindthegates.uk/mcp	streamable-http	answering	163 ms	7 min ago

Alternatives to Mind the Gates — UK level crossings

same job, measured the same way

UK Public Services & Health MCP Server from MCPBundles

by mcpbundles

Access CQC care ratings, NHS health services, and food hygiene data across the UK

answering

Surf Trip Planner

by strikemission

Surf trip planner: live 0-100 Strike Scores, 10-day forecasts, and trip picks for 1,100+ spots.

5 tools answering

Finance MCP

by adityasbisht

Live stock, crypto, SEC filings, FX and macro data for LLM agents. No API keys.

432 installs/wk local only

Sports MCP Server

by cyanheads

Get live scores, schedules, standings, team and player data for NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and soccer.

40 installs/wk local only

Social Fetch

by social-freak-ltd

Public social-data API and live docs for AI coding agents.

188 tools answering

Nyc Restroom MCP

by danielortiz0220

Find NYC public restrooms and their latest Parks inspection status, from NYC Open Data

42 installs/wk local only

Oro Intel MCP

by oro-intel

UK public procurement data for AI agents: tenders, contracts, buyer and supplier profiles.

answering

UnifAPI

by unifapi

Hosted MCP server for live public-data APIs and Skills for AI agents.

answering

Mind the Gates — UK level crossings — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

What can Mind the Gates — UK level crossings do?

It exposes 4 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: busiest_today, crossings_near, crossing_status, list_crossings. The full list with descriptions is on this page — we take it from the server itself via tools/list, not from a README. How MCP servers expose tools in the first place →

Is Mind the Gates — UK level crossings working right now?

We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 92 of 92 checks got a reply (100.0%), average response time 175 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.

How do I connect Mind the Gates — UK level crossings?

Copy the ready config from this page — we generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each with the file path that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address.

Does Mind the Gates — UK level crossings need an API key?

No. Mind the Gates — UK level crossings completed a full MCP handshake with us as an anonymous client and listed its tools without asking for anything. All 4 of them are readable on this page. This is what we observed, not what the docs claim.

How fast is Mind the Gates — UK level crossings?

It answers our handshake in 175 ms on average, which is faster than 70% of all working MCP servers we measure. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.