UK to improve level crossing safety

As part of a recent rail investment package, the Department for Transport has ring-fenced a US$100 million fund for safety improvements to level crossings between 2014 and 2019, and Optex has announced that its Redscan laser detector has been specified as part of a new solution to automate signalling and detect whether or not a level crossing is clear from vehicles and pedestrians before allowing a train to pass through.
July 27, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
As part of a recent rail investment package, the 1837 Department for Transport has ring-fenced a US$100 million fund for safety improvements to level crossings between 2014 and 2019, and Optex has announced that its Redscan laser detector has been specified as part of a new solution to automate signalling and detect whether or not a level crossing is clear from vehicles and pedestrians before allowing a train to pass through.

Following nearly two years of testing, TEW Plus, a supplier of specialist CCTV and security products, has achieved full 5021 Network Rail Product Approval for its level crossing obstacle detector using the Redscan as the core detection element. The complete MCB-OD Level Crossings solution incorporates Lidar as the complimentary obstacle detector (COD) working alongside Radar and CCTV surveillance equipment. The solution will be rolled out to more than 400 level crossings over the next five years.

In separate news, Network Rail is to install a spoken-word warning system at 63 level crossings, starting in the York/Selby area. Instead of a two-tone alarm, a spoken announcement will warn if another train is approaching. The Rail Safety and Standards Board has advised that voice messages should improve awareness, instead of relying solely on alarms.

Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • US enforcement regulation to deliver clearer guidelines?
    February 2, 2012
    Jim Tuton of American Traffic Solutions looks at the evolution of automated enforcement in North America "Technological regulation will become more sophisticated at the federal level, giving states clearer guidelines" Jim Tuton In just 20 years, photo enforcement in North America has grown from a single speed camera in a small town in Arizona to thousands of photo traffic enforcement cameras which are now operating in 350 communities spread across 27 states and three Canadian provinces. Most of these p
    Read More
  • Ouster awarded $2m Chattanooga Lidar contract
    January 15, 2025
    BlueCity solution will be deployed at 120 intersections in US city
    Read More
  • Ken Leonard talks to ITS International
    August 21, 2014
    Ken Leonard, director of the USDOT’s ITS Joint Program office made time in his schedule during the Helsinki Congress to speak to ITS International. It has been 18 months since Ken Leonard took over as the director of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office at the US Department of Transportation. With 30 years of technical experience behind him, to say he is enjoying the challenge would be to put it mildly: “It is incredibly exciting to be working in intelligent transportation systems, th
    Read More
  • The weighty problem of truck routing enforcement
    March 17, 2015
    The growing impact of heavy commercial vehicles on urban and interurban highway infrastructures around the world is driving the need for reliable route access restriction and monitoring. The support role of enforcement is proving fertile ground for ITS development. Bridges are especially vulnerable – and critical in terms of travel delays. The US state of Oregon’s Department of Transportation (ODOT) operates what it claims is one of the country’s most aggressive truck route restriction enforcement programme
    Read More

Highlighted Content