Creating safer crossings: Quiet Zones, closures, and rolling stock reflectorization are among the methods available

Railway Age, March, 2005 by Tom Judge

There's no place where railroads and the public interact that causes more friction than grade crossings. The gripes may never be removed completely, but there's evidence that both sides are working to resolve vital safety issues.

According to Operation Lifesaver, when the organization was founded in 1972, Federal Railroad Administration statistics show that there were about 12,000 collisions between trains and motor vehicles annually. By 2002, that number had been reduced by over 74% to 3,076. Recent FRA statistics illustrate that, since 1994, vehicle-train collisions at highway-grade crossings have decreased by 41% and fatality numbers have fallen by 47%. Those are pretty impressive statistics. But railroaders, FRA, various government entities, and others responsible for this aren't resting on their laurels.

In January, the FRA published a Final Rule that requires railroads to install reflective material on the sides of locomotives and freight cars as a safety measure to make trains more visible to motorists at rail crossings. Nearly one-fourth of all highway-rail grade crossing collisions involve motor vehicles running into trains occupying grade crossings. FRA points out that the large size and dark coloration of trains, in combination with poor lighting or limited visibility, may contribute to motorists having difficulty detecting the train in their path. The reflective material will help reduce the number and severity of this type of accident by giving motorists an additional visual warning of the presence of a train.

The Final Rule on Reflectorization of Rail Freight Rolling Stock requires railroads to install yellow or white reflective materials on locomotives over a five-year timeframe and on freight cars over a 10-year period. The reflective materials will be installed on all newly constructed locomotives and freight cars and on existing ones during periodic maintenance or repair, unless alternate implementation plans have been developed that meet the requisite timetables. The effective date of the rule is March 4, 2005.

What's happening with whistle bans?

After years of study and hearings, the FRA is issuing its Final Rule on whistle bans. Under the rule, local entities can create quiet zones where trains will not sound their horns as they approach crossings.

The Final Rule has not yet been published, and it will not go into effect until 60 days after publication. Industry experts forecast that the new rule will take effect in May.

Last fall, an interim Final Rule generated such a volume of interest that the comment period was extended by two months. FRA had planned to issue the Final Rule in January and have it take effect in April, but dealing with the volume of comments is taking time. According to FRA, the comments received can be grouped into several broad categories, including, but not limited to, states and railroads seeking a greater role in the quiet zone development process, communities seeking recognition of existing partial whistle bans, and communities seeking recognition of whistle bans created after October 1996.

Communities must incorporate major safety devices and efforts in order to be allowed a quiet zone. These include four-quadrant gates, road dividers that prevent vehicles from moving into another lane to drive around gates, horns mounted on the roadside that simulate those on locomotives, and much more.

To assist communities, FRA created the Quiet Zone Calculator, a Web-based tool to allow local jurisdictions to research the feasibility of creating quiet zones that comply with FRA's Horn Rule. The agency believes that the tool will be used by city planners, traffic engineers, and other transportation professionals. The calculator can be found on the FRA website (www.fra.dot.gov).

The Quiet Zone Calculator allows users to access the FRA-maintained National Grade Crossing Inventory and FRA Highway-Rail grade crossing accident records, select a series of crossings, test proposed safety implementation plans that are in compliance with the Horn Rule, and generate summary reports. The user will be able to create multiple scenarios for new quiet zones as well as for zones that have a whistle ban.

State program

Eliminating crossings, whether by separation or closure, is a longstanding railroad goal. Virtually every Class I has a crossing-closure program. But now they are getting direct support from some states.

North Carolina's Department of Transportation recently marked its 100th public railroad crossing closing. NCDOT's crossing closing program involves a long-term plan that combines study, partnerships, coordination, and communication. And it's all in the interest of safety.

More than 10 years ago, in response to a number of crossing accidents, NCDOT developed a three-part approach to improve grade crossing safety. Step one was to establish the needed funding that would support the project. The state established a special fund for passenger route signalization projects. The next step involved infrastructure updates, such as installing reflective crossbars at all crossings on the passenger routes. Then the state began closing its crossings at the same time the FRA set a national goal of closing 25% of crossings nationwide.