Meeting_Body
OPERATIONS, SAFETY, AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE COMMITTEE
FEBRUARY 20, 2020
Subject
SUBJECT: MOTION 47 RESPONSE AUTOMATIC CROSSING GATES
Action
ACTION: RECEIVE AND FILE
Heading
RECOMMENDATION
Title
RECEIVE AND FILE the motion response regarding Metro's light rail gate down time for at-grade crossings.
Issue
ISSUE
During the September 2019 regular board meeting, Motion 47 was brought forward by Board Director Fasana requesting an update Metro's light rail line automatic crossing gate down times at protected intersections for longer than 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes.
Background
BACKGROUND
Metro's light rail system has a total of 75 highway grade crossings, all of which are located on the A Line (Blue), E Line (Expo), and L Line (Gold) Lines with 27, 15, and 33 grade crossings respectively.
The highway grade crossings have active traffic control devices which consist of bells, flashing lights, and gates to inform motorists of the presence of trains, either approaching or occupying a crossing. The warning system activates when an approaching train occupies a segment of track designated to provide a minimum advanced warning time and deactivates after the last train clears the roadway.
At highway traffic signalized intersections, the highway traffic controller is interconnected to the crossing signal system and is part of the traffic control system at the crossing. Traffic preemption is activated by an approaching train occupying a segment of track selected to provide the designed preemption time required to clear vehicular and pedestrian traffic in advance of the train approaching the roadway crossing. In most cases, preemption is activated in advance of the crossing warning system activation to result in less than 3-minute gate down times.
The primary reasons that gate down times exceed 3 minutes include equipment failures, broken gate arms, vehicle accidents at the crossings adjacent Union Pacific railroad operations, vand...
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