A good video showing a case study of Melbourne, Austrailia of their program to remove a substantial number of level crossings on the city’s metro network.
What is clear throughout this video is the benefits of level crossing removal schemes:
- Greater safety through separation of road traffic and rail traffic.
- More frequent rail services by not having the backlash of barrier downtime (i.e. Bebside level crossing near Blyth Bebside station, Blyth)
- Improved urban realm by not having the railway acting as a barrier between two sides of busy pedestrian areas (for example using the ground level trackbed as a ‘plaza’ in some areas of Melbourne).
Have a watch and think about a local level crossing to you:
Would it be better by it being replaced?
How could it be done?
Think boldly about how it could be done; do you elevate the track, or lower it into the ground?
Do you build a road bridge over the line, pass beneath it, or divert it elsewhere?
Over coming blogs, I intend to show a few local examples to me of where removal of level crossings could be a massive advantage, and perhaps show how it could be done.
Ryan Hogg 