Ernest H. Robl Wrote:
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> Not really true. And, I can say this as someone
> who's followed both U.S. and European railroads
> all my life and done engine cab rides in both the
> U.S. and Europe.
>
> Of course, it depends somewhat on what the
> original poster meant by "this kind of crossing."
>
> In Europe (I'm generalizing as countries vary
> somewhat) Main lines with speeds above 160 km/h
> (100 mph) cannot have any grade crossings and have
> to have specific types of advanced signaling
> systems --as well as other types of safety
> features.
>
> However, other lines, including main lines, may
> have grade crossings. Depending on a variety of
> factors, including the speeds at which trains
> operate, these may have full four quadrant gates
> and may also be interconnected with road traffic
> signals. But you will find some crossings that
> only have half barriers and no barriers -- in
> other words only flashing lights. Crossings with
> automated protection but limited sight distances
> for the train operators may have crossing
> protection verification signals. These display a
> light to indicate that the crossing protection is
> working.
>
> In a few very rare cases, you may even find some
> main line crossings that have no active protection
> and where the operator (train driver / engineer)
> is required to sound his horn. In Austria, I am
> aware of some of these even on a mainline (though
> with low speeds due to curves and grades) where
> major hiking trails cross the rail line at grade.
>
>
> Yes, in Europe vastly more rail lines are totally
> grade separated, but you will still find grade
> crossings of various types. And, yes, they do
> have grade crossing collisions, though way fewer
> than in the U.S.

Standards are, and have been in recent history, higher for at grade road crossings and protection in "Western" Europe, than in the US, in general. But there are plenty more crossings like this one, still in use today, in almost every country that was behind the old "iron curtain".

This is one of the things we are trying to fix in the US, by beefing up funding for crossing protection and grade separations. This also includes funds for the efforts at upgrading and/or removing rural unprotected private and/or agriculture crossings (think Missouri and Simi Valley major Amtrak derailments in the last couple of years). These funds could also be used for things like full gating and/or quad gating, for more crossings like the one shown... That is, if we don't turn around and cut the funding we finally approved for it two years ago...?

As to fatalities, and American versus European grade crossing fatality rates?

After watching what efforts Brightline has gone to, and the fact that 99 people have managed to kill themselves by doing things like intentionally running through the down quad gates and running the interconnected traffic signals, quite often while driving under the influence, it is just "maybe' more of a testament to our much higher rates of DUI in the US, than our lack of grade crossing safety improvements?

When we looked at the DUI rates of those killed in the first ten years of the Blue Line in LA, the average blood alcohol of those killed was .23, or nearly three times the legal limit, and that included the very tinyu handful that weren't legally drunk...

One sees the same thing for bike fatalities 40% legally DUI at time of death, and pedestrians at a whopping 48% legally drunk at time of death (as opposed to only 13% of those who hit them being drunk/about half of the rate of DUI auto related deaths.

Remember those numbers the next time you hear a bunch of whining or propganda about the "evil" killer cars and/or, in this case, the "evil" killer trains from some of the various stripes of the more dubious "new urbanist" fringes...

As Rosanna Rosannannadanna used to say: "It's always somthing"