CHAPTER 1

Introduction

While the highway-rail grade crossing collision rate has fallen steadily since 1980, opportunities remain to further improve grade crossing safety through a mix of engineering, education, and enforcement of applicable traffic laws. Electronic surveillance through rail crossing cameras has been increasingly employed to monitor grade crossings. Information gained from the analysis of the surveillance data can then enhance engineering, education, and enforcement efforts.

Since rail development preceded the development of highways and cities as they are known today, many cities across the United States are crisscrossed by rail lines, which has resulted in thousands of highway-rail grade crossings. These rail crossings are on freight railroads as well as on rail transit and passenger (commuter) rail lines. In many instances, commuter rail and intercity passenger rail services share tracks and corridors with the freight railroad. In some instances, light-rail operations are in the same corridor, even though they do not share the same tracks.

The prevalence and diversity of conditions and contexts have made dealing with rail crossing operations and safety complicated. The potential for collision between rail vehicles and road vehicles or pedestrians is real and dangerous. There is a need for careful planning, design, operation, control, and enforcement of rail crossings. There has always been talk about highway-rail grade crossing elimination; however, it is unrealistic to eliminate thousands of crossings as it is quite costly and could impose greater inconvenience to the traveling public. Hence, there is a need to reduce conflicts and the potential for collisions through technological system solutions, operational/procedural solutions, and/or human factors solutions. There is an emphasis on the “three E’s” – education, engineering, and enforcement – and these can be informed, assisted, and/or enhanced with electronic surveillance of rail crossings.

The location, the type of crossing (90-degree or skewed), physical surroundings, the volume of traffic on crossing roads, the type of road vehicles (car, bus, truck), the nature of pedestrians, dwellers, and trespassers at the crossings, the type of control devices, and the number and type of rail movements make each crossing unique and the treatments needed for safety challenging. All these factors influence the nature of electronic surveillance systems at rail crossings and their effectiveness in monitoring and providing safety information. Moreover, having multiple stakeholders involved or associated with rail crossings makes implementation difficult. A rail line may go through multiple jurisdictions, each with regulations and preferences.

The rail crossings of interest in this synthesis are those on rail transit (light rail and heavy rail) and commuter rail lines in the United States. These systems are defined in the following ways (FTA 2020; Warner et al. 2022a):

Heavy Rail is an electric railway that operates service in exclusive rights-of-way. The service is often provided by long trains of six to eight cars or more that travel relatively short distances between stops within a city and the immediate suburbs.

Light Rail is an electric railway that operates in mixed traffic or intersects with roadways at grade crossings. The service is characterized by short trains of one to four passenger cars that travel relatively short distances between stops within a city and the immediate suburbs, have low- or high-platform loading, and have vehicle power drawn from an overhead electric line via a trolley or pantograph.

Commuter Rail is an electric- or diesel-propelled railway for urban passenger train service consisting of local travel that operates between a central city and outlying areas. Service is provided within urbanized areas or between urbanized areas and outlying areas.

Several guidance and data documents from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) provide data, information, and advice on various aspects of rail crossing safety (FTA 2018; FTA 2019; FTA 2020). Similarly, several guidance and data documents from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) are relevant to rail crossing safety (FRA 2007; FRA 2018; FRA 2019a; FRA 2019b; FRA 2019c). The FTA’s Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan regulation (CFR 2024) is also relevant when considering rail crossing safety. The FRA’s Highway-Rail Grade Crossing and Trespass Prevention: Compliance, Procedures, and Programs Manual (FRA 2019a) is designed to provide practical resources for the uniform application of FRA regulations about grade crossing safety and trespassing prevention programs throughout the nation.

The engineering design and operation guidelines for rail crossings can be found in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (see NCUTCD 2009; NCUTCD 2023) and its updates as well as in the Highway-Rail Crossing Handbook (Ogden and Cooper 2019). Several documents go into procedures and guidelines for railroad preemption.

Objective

The objective of this study was to document current practices and lessons learned from rail service providers and others regarding the types, nature, implementations, successes, and failures of rail crossing electronic surveillance programs, particularly related to safety. The synthesis also touches on potential future advancements in rail crossing surveillance.

Scope and Approach

The scope included

• Data collection and analysis methodologies (e.g., crash frequencies, unintended events, and trespassing behaviors),
• Decision criteria,
• Application of data,
• System components and configuration,
• Capital and operating costs,
• Funding sources,
• Challenges and constraints (legal, institutional, technological), and
• Measures of effectiveness.

The approach to collect and document practices related to electronic surveillance of rail transit and commuter rail crossings included the literature search and review, the use of a questionnaire to survey agencies and individuals knowledgeable and experienced about electronic surveillance of rail crossings, and follow-up interviews to develop selected case examples.

Report Organization

This report includes six chapters, a list of references, a list of acronyms, a glossary, and three appendices. Chapter 2 provides findings from the literature review. Chapter 3 and Appendices A to C provide a questionnaire, information on the number and types of respondents, summaries of survey responses, and takeaways from survey analysis. Eight case examples are presented in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 identifies and highlights the state of the practice regarding electronic surveillance of rail crossings, while Chapter 6 summarizes the conclusions and provides suggestions for further study.