High Speed Rail Grade Crossing-First of its Kind to be Installed in the U.S.
Volpe Center's staff from the Physical Infrastructure Systems COI recently accompanied a team of highway rail grade crossing engineers from Transport Canada (TC) on a site visit of the School Street four-quadrant gate grade crossing/vehicle presence detection system in Mystic, Connecticut. The site visit was organized at the request of the Rail Safety Directorate of TC and was facilitated by Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Region I and Volpe Center staff.
The crossing is the first with four gates to be installed on the National Railroad Passenger Corporation's (Amtrak) Northeast Corridor (NEC) high-speed rail (HSR) line in Connecticut, and the first of its kind to be installed in the United States.
It uses inductive loop vehicle presence detection technology to sense when a vehicle is inside the grade crossing gates within the rail track infrastructure. When this occurs, the two exit gates are automatically raised, allowing the vehicle to safely depart the crossing. The system also alerts the oncoming train to the vehicle's presence and will invoke Automatic Train Stop if the operator fails to stop the train.
Volpe Center rail systems and safety experts have a long history of cross-border cooperation and knowledge-sharing with Canadian government colleagues. Volpe Center staff members serve on Canadian research and development committees and cooperate extensively to accentuate their knowledge sharing activities. In this site visit, the group, including FRA Region I personnel, observed the revenue service operation of the enhanced warning devices at the School Street grade crossing. This technology was specifically designed to provide enhanced safety at HSR grade crossings and is unique to the NEC.
The Volpe Center previously conducted an evaluation of this technology in support of the FRA's Office of Research and Development and was able to add considerable background information and insight to the site visit. Transport Canada is extremely interested in the four-quadrant gate/vehicle presence detection technology and the information they gathered at this site visit as well as the technical background provided by the Volpe Center, may lead them to deploy the technology at grade crossings on Canadian high-speed rail lines.
The Volpe Center has been instrumental in establishing the viability of the four quadrant gate/vehicle presence detection grade crossing technology. Since the Volpe Center’s experts proved the viability of its initial deployment at the School Street crossing, the technology has been installed at five other crossings on the Amtrak high HSR corridor between Stonington and New London, Connecticut.
An Amtrak train passes the School Street crossing on the Northeast Corridor High Speed Rail Line in Mystic, CT. (
Volpe Center photo)
