HIGHWAY-RAIL AT GRADE CROSSING INCIDENTS PER YEAR

Grade Crossing – FTA National Transit Database (NTD) Definitions

Grade crossings are locations at which other traffic may traverse the right-of-way (ROW) for rail modes operating at grade.  There are two classifications:

At Grade, Mixed and Cross Traffic :  Railway right-of-way (ROW) over which other traffic moving in the same direction or the cross directions may pass.  City street right-of-way is included.
At Grade, with Cross Traffic :  Railway right-of-way (ROW) over which no other traffic may pass, except to cross at grade-level crossings.  A median strip right-of-way with grade-level crossings at intersecting streets is included.

Grade Crossing – FRA Definition

Highway-rail grade crossing :  A location where a public highway, road, street, or private roadway, including associated sidewalks and pathways, crosses one or more railroad tracks at grade.

FTA Background

Following reporting revisions, beginning reporting year 2002, and due to funding issues, the FTA National Transit Database contractor has been unable to validate officially the Safety and Security Reporting.  However, FTA’s Office of Safety and Security has confidence in most of the figures that have been reported.  In general, most incidents reported by individual agencies meet FTA incident thresholds.

FTA has three rail modes, which include commuter rail (CR), light rail (LR), and heavy rail (HR).  Since CR is operated on right-of-way regulated by FRA, safety reporting for CR grade crossing incidents takes place in the FRA RAIRS database.  HR (or subway) is operated almost exclusively in rights-of-way that do not include crossings (Chicago-CTA has 5 crossings).  All FTA grade crossing data are from LR (or streetcar) operations.  LR operations occur in several operating environments that do not lend themselves to the traditional FRA definition of grade crossings.  FRA does not have jurisdiction over LR crossings.  Due to the mixed traffic and dense urban, streetcar-type operating environment of light rail transit, these crossings require different standards and treatment from FRA requirements.