Lxinfo - Campaigns and Education

Lxinfo magazine - Campaigns and education

CSinfo Online magazine web link

Austin, Texas: Capital MetroRail begins public services

Capital MetroRail (CMR) opens for business, source CMR

The second tier of Capital MetroRail’s rail safety efforts is guided by a community advisory group know as the Grassroots Rail Outreach Working Group (GROW). The GROW group is made up of educators, school officials, emergency responders and community leaders who work together to increase safety awareness in schools, churches, recreation centres, businesses and the homeless community.

Capital MetroRail (CMR) outreach material, source CMR

Initiatives from the Innovative Safety Outreach effort include:

Girl and Boy Scouts Rail Safety Patches
A youth public service announcement contest
Safety Tips on Bus Radio
A rail safety poster competition (pictured)
School-book covers
A rail safety website: www.stayoffthetracks.com

School-book cover, source Capital MetroRail

(March 27th, 2010)

Capital MetroRail has begun public services in Austin, Texas and once again shown that it is at the forefront of taking transit safety messages, including those relating to the highway rail interface into the community.

Much was done during the construction and test running phases of the project to raise awareness of how motorists and other road users should interact with the Capital MetroRail transit system. Now that public operation has begun, the key safety messages are being reiterated across the city.

When public service began on March 22nd, 2010 Capital MetroRail’s 32-mile-long Red Line opened with free travel available in the build up to a dedication ceremony on March 27th, 2010 which celebrated the start of passenger rail service over existing railway infrastructure with an emphasis on safety. Students who had been involved in Capital Metro¿s rail safety education efforts took a MetroRail “Safety Train” demonstration ride to the dedication at Downtown Station. The dedication ceremony recognised student work and activities.

Capital MetroRail’s safety improvements include:

Installing four quadrant gates in the area from US 183 to Downtown and Cedar Park to Leander, which prevent cars from driving around barriers
Installing chain link fencing to prevent pedestrian and auto accidents along the rail line
Upgrading pavement markings and installing more warning signage at crossings
Coordinating with the local municipalities to install signal pre-emption technology at several intersections that will coordinate traffic and train signals
Working with emergency responders from Travis and Williamson Counties to ensure proper education on the situations and possible risks associated with railroad right-of-way issues

The first tier of Capital MetroRail’s safety education effort is the national Operation Lifesaver safety outreach programme. Since 2007, Capital MetroRail has worked with Texas Operation Lifesaver to provide safety presentations in schools, driver’s education classes, seniors’ centres, scout troops, museums, churches, and to many other groups. To date, the Austin Operation Lifesaver team has presented to roughly 60,000 students, focusing on those schools that are within two miles of Capital Metro’s railroad tracks.

Illinois: Operation Lifesaver staying on track

Operation Lifesaver Illinois have published the latest edition of their excellent “Staying on Track” newsletter. A matters of more general interest covered in this newsletter is a new public service announcement entitled “A knock on the door”.

The film, which runs for 3 minutes and 15 seconds, was made in Illinois in late 2009 in Highland Park. The story unfolds as two police officers are assigned the unpleasant task of having to make notification to the parents of a child that has been killed in a train -v- vehicle collision. The anxiety and uneasiness of this call is felt throughout, and brings out that police officers are real people too, with feelings.

The film features Officer Bill Lyons and Lieutenant Ray Fisher of the Villa Park Police Department engaging in real police activities made the story believable because they have experienced making notifications for real. Bill Lyons was quoted as saying, “it’s the most heart wrenching part of the job as a police officer.”

The film is designed for the young adult or new driver audience and is a departure from the traditional safety film in that, we aren’t instructing the viewers on what to do and what not to do. As the newsletter says “It’s more of a cerebral approach, dealing with the consequences of their actions. After seeing the film, people will think about how this scenario would affect their loved ones and the suffering they would endure. If it makes them think about it the next time or every time they come up to the tracks then we’ve accomplished our goal.

If you would like a copy of the public service announcement, contact Chip Pew at cpew@icc.illinois.gov

(March 25th, 2010)

United Kingdom: Operation Galley running nationwide

The British Transport Police (BTP) have a long history of working to address road user abuse of level crossings. The latest manifestation of their approach is a nationwide initiative known as “Operation Galley”. This initiative was launched in July 2009 which combines enforcement activity at black spots and education of road users.

Leadership of Operation Galley is entrusted to Chief Inspector Gary Clark and Inspector Tom Naughton who have so far run more than 40 exercises with a concentration of activity in the last quarter of 2009 continuing into 2010. The philosophy behind Operation Galley is that it is intelligence led with input from a range of partners including Network Rail and citizens in the local community concerned about abuse of a local level crossing.

In the run up to Christmas 2009, 130 motorists were caught zig-zagging around barriers according to “the Line”, the BTP house magazine. Looking to the future, the latest issue of “the Line” identifies the possibility of BTP acquiring mobile photo-enforcement vans as used by a number of other forces in the United Kingdom as a complement to the probable greater use of fixed CCTV systems.

Mobile photo-enforcement has previously used in the early 1990’s when the BTP North Eastern Area deployed a portable Vascar system to good effect.

(March 25th, 2010)

British Transport Police logo

Industry, California: UP Police and other agencies out in force
Union Pacific (UP) police officers and those from local law enforcement agencies have been working together to address level crossing abuse in Industry California. The operation ran for two days from March 17th, 2010. The focus of the operation was on the seven mile stretch where Valley Boulevard runs parallel to UP metals where level crossing abuse and line of route trespass was confronted. To increase the opportunities to unearth abuse, UP ran a special train up and down the target stretch.		The operation was productive with 76 tickets handed out at level crossings, two cars being used by unlicensed drivers impounded and one line of route trespasser ticketed. Over and above this a man was arrested against and outstanding warrant. And, this was just the haul on the first day. (March 18th, 2010)