The local authority in Dunedin has decided to do nothing further and shelve the project to construct a bridge over the railway to allow the harbour-side area to be redeveloped. As a result, the sole access to the area will, for the foreseeable future be via a level crossing.

In February 2010, the city council signalled its intent to construct a pedestrian and cycle over-bridge from beside the Chinese Garden to Thomas Burns Street. At that time, plans for two options were unveiled, a “functional” solution costing NZD 1.5 million, or a "landmark" structure, that would cost between NZD 2.6 million and NZD 3.5 million.

Now, the council has concluded that the new link is a nice to do rather than essential project. Accordingly, the council decided to take no further action until the budget for the forthcoming financial year has been prepared.

(July 27th, 2011)

Photo-enforcement cameras are to be installed at six level crossings in Adelaide to counter red light running and excessive speed.

The introduction of the enforcement cameras will require the state government to pass new legislation to ensure that the penalties for an offence at a level crossing are the same as those applicable at other intersections where cameras are used.

(July 27th, 2011)

An elderly female pedestrian was killed on the Belgrave Street level crossing in Kempsey. The accident occurred at approximately 14.30 as the passenger train was slowing for a station stop. Because of the continuing investigation all 200 passengers continued their journey by bus.

(July 20th, 2011)

TasRail has released figures showing that there were 118 level crossing incidents on its network in the 2010-2011 financial year. Each and every one of these incidents occurred because of road user misuse. Two of the incidents involved fatalities.

In September 2010 a 17-year-old was killed when the quad bike he was riding was hit by a freight train on a level crossing in Spreyton, near Devonport (LXinfo October 2010). Subsequently in March 2011 a woman died from injuries sustained when she was hit by a train on the Albert Road level crossing in Moonah (LXinfo April 2011).

(July 15th, 2011)

The Coronial Inquest into the eleven deaths arising as a result of a collision between a truck and a train on a level crossing in Kerang has resumed. The Inquest has heard that the active open level crossing at which the accident occurred had a history of near miss incidents prior to the fatal collision in June 2007.

Garry Bennett, a former police officer, told the Inquest that he had been told by the train operator a year before the fatal accident that their drivers had reported five near misses as having occurred. Mr Bennett also said that the issue had been covered in the local media at the time and that the police had on several occasions monitored the crossing without seeing any offences occur.

The inquest continues.

(July 14th, 2011)

Kerang accident kills eleven, source ATSB

The trial in Victoria of a system that transmits a warning when a train is approaching a level crossing to alert road vehicle drivers via the radios fitted in their vehicles when they are similarly approaching a level crossing  (LXinfo April 2011) is being observed with interest by Queensland Rail (QR).

Were the alert system to be adopted, all crossings would be equipped to broadcast an alert when a train is detected as approaching. Likewise, all sound systems fitted to motor vehicles would need to be modified to receive the alert and relay it to the driver regardless of the status of the equipment at the time the alert is received.

NFA Innovations, the company developing the alert system has been quoted as saying that the costs of the system would be approximately AUD 4,000 per level crossing. The suggested cost to motorists has been quoted to be AUD 40 per vehicle.

The potential of the radio alert system is but one strand of QR’s commitment to considering all solutions to the perennial problem of level crossing collisions. This commitment follows the collision between a passenger train and a light truck on a level crossing near Bambaroo on July 11th, 2011 (qv).

(July 13th, 2011)

The cost of active controls required as a condition precedent for the provision of a new level crossing in Tarago, Goulburn – Mulwaree District are now standing in the way of the crossing being provided. The issue is that the council’s budget won’t stand the costs apportioned to it. The emerging costs have increased beyond the original estimates on which the council entered into an agreement with the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC). Now the council is looking to understand the basis of the costs facing them and are also looking to see if cheaper, equally effective, solutions might be found.

(July 13th, 2011)

A July 5th, 2011 accident at the notorious Springvale Road level crossing in greater Melbourne has flushed-out a ministerial commitment to complete the proposed grade-separation in 2014 (LXinfo June 2011).

In the latest accident, a teenager sustained serious but non-life threatening injuries This occurred when he crossed into the path of a train while the crossing was closed to road users.
Now Victoria’s Public Transport Minister, Terry Mulder, has said that construction work on the grade-separation would be funded by 2013 when substantive construction will begin. Currently, design work is under way utilising funding from the current budget year.

(July 12th, 2011)

A pedestrian was killed when he was struck by a train on or adjacent to the level crossing on Newman Road which is located next to Geebung railway station in Brisbane’s northern suburbs.

The fatality which occurred at 07.05 on July 12th, 2011 is the subject of a police investigation which will make use of railway CCTV images to determine whether the accident was actually on the level crossing or whether it was associated with a short cut to the station platform. The police service has indicated that it is treating the death as accidental.

(July 12th, 2011)

The collision between a train and truck on a level crossing in Bambaroo will be investigated to present a recurrence was the reaction of Queensland’s Premier, Anna Bligh. The commitment given in the immediate aftermath of the collision at a level crossing on the Bruce Highway near the junction with Abswold Road is unsurprising given the profile of level crossing accidents in Queensland.

The collision which occurred at 10.40 on July 11th, 2011 saw the light truck split in two by the force of the collision which resulted in both occupants of the truck evacuated by helicopter to hospital in Townsville with serious injuries. In addition one person who was travelling on the train was taken to hospital in Ingham with less serious injuries.

(July 11th, 2011)

The project to realign State Highway 1 and eliminate the notorious s-bend level crossing in Ohingati, Manawatu – Wanganui, has been nominated for a major award (LXinfo April 2011). The award for which the consulting engineer to the project, MWH, is a finalist is the 2011 INNOVATE NZTM Awards of Excellence.

The awards, organised by the Association of Consulting Engineers NZ (ACENZ), recognise innovation in consulting engineering both in the structures or processes developed and in the means of providing engineering services to the client.

The new NZD 14 million highway alignment over a 4 km distance towards Makohine replaces a road on which there have been more than fifty accidents in the past five years.

The nature of the level crossing had resulted in the road speed being reduced from the prevailing 100kph to just 25kph despite which there had been a double fatality accident in 2007. This accident orphaned a five-year-old child.

The new highway replaces both the level crossing and a winding route up Makohine Hill. In total the project involved moving 0.5 million cubic metres of rock and soil, much of which was used to raise the highway over the railway.

Winners of the awards will be announced on August 6.

(July 1st, 2011)