HOW LIGHT RAIL SYSTEMS HAVE ENHANCED GRADE CROSSING SAFETY

This article offers an overview of grade crossing safety issues for light rail systems. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is exploring the use of locomotive-mounted cameras to examine highway rail grade crossing safety and trespass prevention. Meanwhile, a number of system operators are already reporting successes, particularly as a result of focusing on the 3 Es of engineering, education, and enforcement. For engineering, some system operators are turning to reconfigured traffic signal lights which allow the lights to turn red for all traffic as trains pass by. Others are installing experimental four-quadrant railroad crossing gates, installed medians designed to prevent cars from driving around gates when down, and pedestrian gates behind sidewalks, in an effort to minimize train collisions. For enforcement, some operators are using photo enforcement cameras, while others are adding additional police officers to actively enforce moving violations. Finally, for education, public awareness campaigns are being conducted in areas near a systems right-of-way. Some systems are using local media to make public service announcements, while others are giving rail safety presentations at local schools.