"It's a war zone out there." - Commuter Line Grade Crossings; includes related articles

Railway Age, May, 1995 by William C. Vantuono

At Middletown, N.J., a pedestrian was killed when he was struck by a New Jersey Transit skip-stop express train traveling at posted track speed through the station. The victim (not a passenger, but a retired man in his mid-60s who routinely crossed the right-of-way to buy breakfast from a coffee truck parked at the station), was struck on a crossing with an activated warning system and lowered gates. It is believed that he mistakenly assumed that the train was going to stop at the station. Middletown officials later asked NJ Transit if it would consider having the express train stop at the station, rather than bypass it.

One week later, a 19-year-old homeless man committed suicide on a grade crossing at NJ Transit's Little Silver station. two stops before Middletown. Both incidents brought commuter trains on NJ Transit's busy North Jersey Coast Line to a halt for several hours, requiring the railroad to provide shuttle buses for stranded commuters.

Thirteen years ago, at a crossing in Mineola, N.Y., a Long Island Rail Road train struck a van that had been driven around closed gates. The vehicle was carrying 10 teenagers who had been returning home from a party. The collision killed nine in the van; a subsequent investigation revealed that all were intoxicated.

After twelve years of public debate, the New York State Department of Transportation and the local community were able to provide funding to assist LIRR in grade-separating a six-crossing stretch in Mineola, an area of high-density highway and railroad traffic. The $85 million project (of which LIRR's share is $23.3 million) will take several years to complete.

During a three-month period in 1994, 10 people (five of them pedestrians) in the Chicago area were struck and killed at public crossings on rights-of-way used by Metra commuter trains. Only one incident involved Metra, but some stories appearing in the local media made it appear as though the commuter line was at fault. Newspapers started keeping a body count - a practice that Metra actually encouraged, says spokesman Chris Knapton, in an effort to improve public awareness as to the dangers of trespassing and driving around closed crossing gates. "We taught the media to use the word `trespasser,'" says Knapton. "Prior to this, it had usually portrayed the person killed as an innocent victim." Knapton adds that 25% of the funds for Metra's region-wide FAST (Future Agenda for Suburban Transportation) public transit improvement program will be spent on grade crossing elimination.

On the Virginia Railway Express, special highway traffic signs have been created to alert drivers and pedestrians to increased train frequency. Other signs call attention to the fact that push-pull service is operated - so that unsuspecting people who assume that a train always travels in the direction in which the locomotive is pointed will not walk in front of a cab-car-first train as it leaves a station.

"It's a war zone out there," says John Billington, Jr., a veteran engineer who will be retiring from NJ Transit in June. During his 50-year career, 13 people (the latest the suicide at Little Silver) have been killed while trespassing or driving around gates in front of trains that Billington has operated. "What can I do but lean on the air horn, put the train into emergency, and hope for the best?" he shrugs in resignation. (About a month after the Little Silver incident, Billington narrowly missed hitting two teenagers, a boy and a girl, who he says were standing on the tracks talking, oblivious to any train traffic.)

None of the incidents were found to be Billington's fault, but for several, he has had to testify in court cases brought against the railroad by the families of the victims. In a recent case, the plaintiffs lost after appealing, but the incident still cost NJ Transit a considerable amount in legal fees, court costs, and replacement labor. A new rulemaking proposed by the Federal Railroad Administration (see sidebar, above) could go a long way towards eliminating some of the legal ambiguities surrounding highway-rail grade crossing collisions.

As for trespassing on railroad property, it is illegal in certain states (such as West Virginia). In New Jersey, it is a crime, punishable by stiff fines and imprisonment, to vandalize grade crossing warning devices. But there are no federal laws governing trespassing and acts of vandalism (such as stoning) that disrupt railroad. operations and endanger the safety of train crews, passengers, and users of public highways.

There is now a national effort under way to amend 18 U.S. Criminal Code Section 1992, which makes willful acts of vandalism or terrorism with the intent to derail, disable, or wreck any part of a train a federal offense. Many acts that may not actually result in the derailment or wreck of a train, or that may not have been undertaken with the intent of causing those results, nevertheless can produce them, say the amendment's proponents. The amendment would make these acts a federal offense punishable by a lesser penalty than that now prescribed in 18 U.S.C. Section 1992. * LIRR's grade crossing initiatives. The Long Island Rail Road, the busiest commuter railroad in North America, has no fewer than 308 grade crossings equipped with warning devices that include lights, bells, gates, pavement markers, and advance roadway signage. Of these, 89 are in electrified (third-rail) territory and 219 in diesel territory. LIRR spends a considerable amount on their purchase, installation, testing, inspection, and maintenance: Out of LIRR's total FY 1995 C&S budget of $18 million (of which $10 million is earmarked for signal maintenance), 7.5%, or $1.2 million, is devoted to grade crossing equipment. This amount is typical of large commuter railroads. NJ Transit, by comparison (with 329 crossings on its statewide rail network), will spend $1.6 million in FY 1995 on grade crossings.