Level crossings
Network Rail, in cooperation with the British Transport Police, is operating 15 mobile safety vehicles across Britain. Operators monitor level crossing use and issue penalties to individuals who misuse crossings.
A major emphasis of their work is to identify crossings for elimination. NR has already closed over 600 crossings since 2009, which has saved an estimated lifetime
operational cost of £158m, and is on target to close 150 more by 2014,
achieving a further saving of £50m. An additional 500 level crossings are earmarked for closure in 2015-2019.
New footbridges are among the solutions used to eliminate pedestrian use of level crossings with 55 low-cost foot bridges installed the past two years. Gallagher says that by instituting a national programme to identify when a bridge might be appropriate, NR can buy in bulk which has reduced the cost of procurement by around £500,000. In instances where a crossing cannot be closed, the infrastructure manager is trialling and introducing a variety of new safety features to reduce risk for users. The simplest of these is improving the line of sight at level crossings which involves cutting back vegetation and has now been carried out at 1100 locations.
New technology is also playing a major role. For example, spoken warning systems, which announce that “another train is coming” rather than
34
change the tone of the warning siren, which is potentially confusing to the public and arguably led to the accident at Elsenham, will be installed at 151 crossings by the middle of next year. Low-cost barriers have similarly been installed at 72 open crossings. To the user these appear no different than a conventional half barrier crossing, but they cost around £100,000 compared with £850,000 for a full upgrade from an open crossing. Low-cost miniature red and green warning lights, which are designed to reduce waiting times and incidents of misuse, are also being installed, along with automatic gate open and closure systems at 500 level crossings.
Various camera types are now playing a major part in reducing risk. NR, in cooperation with the British Transport Police, will install 150 fixed enforcement cameras at road level crossings by next year, while 15 mobile safety vehicles which issue penalty notices to people who misuse crossings are now in use. Cameras are similarly being used for census gathering at 650 open level crossings to build an accurate usage profile that will better inform the risk assessment process. In addition, special cameras with video analytics technology which can detect when an object is stationary on the track and can
IRJ December 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48