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U.S.Department of Transportation
Office of Public Affairs
Washington, D.C.
www.dot.gov/affairs/briefing.htm
News |
Public Invited to Comment on Safety at Private Highway-Rail Grade Crossings
at San Francisco, CA Forum on October 26
Contact: Steve Kulm or DeDe Cordell
Telephone: 202-493-6024
Tuesday, October 24, 2006 (Washington, DC) Continuing a national effort to improve safety and save lives at private highway-rail grade crossings, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is holding a series of public meetings across the country, with the next coming to San Francisco, California on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 9:30 a.m.
The purpose is to gather information to help FRA better understand the safety issues at locations where non-public roadways cross over railroad tracks used by freight and passenger trains. Approximately 400 vehicle-train collisions and 30 to 40 fatalities occur at the nation’s 94,000 private crossings each year.
Since private crossings are not subject to the same federal rail safety regulations that public crossings are, FRA is seeking comments on several topics, including: how to define when a private crossing has a public purpose; how improvement and maintenance costs should be allocated; whether current warning devices for motorists are adequate; and if there should be a more uniform state or federal approach to improving safety at private crossings.
In addition, establishing responsibility for safety at private crossings is one of the primary goals of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety and Trespass Prevention Action Plan issued in 2004. Increased focus on private crossings will complement FRA’s ongoing comprehensive program to improve safety at public crossings.
The public meeting will be held Thursday, October 26 at 9:30am at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and Courthouse, 450 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco, CA. Previous meetings have taken place in Minnesota and North Carolina. The next meeting is scheduled to take place in Louisiana later this year.
The FRA also has opened a public docket so that interested parties may submit written comments for public review and consideration. The public docket is available at http://dms.dot.gov (FRA-2005 – 23281).
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