Brightline Trains Florida discussion

Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
jruff001 said:
This is going to be a HUGE problem as the schedule increases. I can't believe they are going to have so many grade crossings.
Click to expand...
It's simply a matter of cost of removing the existing crossings (No new crossings opened on the mainline for the Brightline service) vs the costs of the disruptions that collisions cause.
 
neroden said:
Perhaps more aggressive anti-car measures -- spikes, bollards rising out of the ground, etc. -- are the way to go.
Click to expand...
This was on the existing trackage. I think all of the crossings on the new double trackage north of WPB are getting 4-quadrant gates, which will make it impossible for cars to go around unless they crash through a gate.
 
joelkfla said:
This was on the existing trackage. I think all of the crossings on the new double trackage north of WPB are getting 4-quadrant gates, which will make it impossible for cars to go around unless they crash through a gate.
Click to expand...

In my view this is at best a temporary fix as they don't remove the problem of people stopping on the tracks, which tends to happen especially if there is an intersection adjacent to the rail crossing.
 
Way too many grade crossings= more chance to run into an idiot. When we rode this train years ago, they were "gun shy" over 4 recent accidents, We crawled though every grade crossing, turning the 45 minute trip into 2 hours.
 
Certainly removing grade crossing improves safety. But it also hurts public relations where citizens (and first responders) get mighty testy about adding a couple miles to their journey. The problem is almost all psychological - people are engrained with the belief that as soon as the red lights start flashing, they will be stuck for 10 minutes. I commend CSX for grade separation and almost no grade crossings along their route in this area. FEC was a 2nd tier rail carrier. They didn't have the need to reduce crossings with the few trains they had.

I've actually seen in Japan where they were able to raise the tracks above the grade to remove crossings. I've also seen them completely move a track underground - both of these tasks without ever stopping service. Talk about expensive. But they deemed it worthwhile. In the meantime, Darwin will have his pick of the litter.
 
Shouldn't the people who live along the Brightline tracks realize by now that taking a chance may cost your life. Are all these people really that stupid?
 
cirdan said:
In my view this is at best a temporary fix as they don't remove the problem of people stopping on the tracks, which tends to happen especially if there is an intersection adjacent to the rail crossing.
Click to expand...
I believe they were also talking about intrusion detectors, but I don't know whether they were installed or if so how extensively.
 
VentureForth said:
Certainly removing grade crossing improves safety. But it also hurts public relations where citizens (and first responders) get mighty testy about adding a couple miles to their journey. The problem is almost all psychological - people are engrained with the belief that as soon as the red lights start flashing, they will be stuck for 10 minutes. I commend CSX for grade separation and almost no grade crossings along their route in this area. FEC was a 2nd tier rail carrier. They didn't have the need to reduce crossings with the few trains they had.

I've actually seen in Japan where they were able to raise the tracks above the grade to remove crossings. I've also seen them completely move a track underground - both of these tasks without ever stopping service. Talk about expensive. But they deemed it worthwhile. In the meantime, Darwin will have his pick of the litter.
Click to expand...

I believe that in Japan there is actually a fund for this type of thing and local municipalities can somehow apply for money for this type of project.
 
Last edited:
joelkfla said:
I believe they were also talking about intrusion detectors, but I don't know whether they were installed or if so how extensively.
Click to expand...

Intrusion detection systems might work in cases where vehicles get stuck on the tracks. But it seems most collisions are the result of people trying to race the train and the race ending in a tie.
 
Trogdor said:
Intrusion detection systems might work in cases where vehicles get stuck on the tracks. But it seems most collisions are the result of people trying to race the train and the race ending in a tie.
Click to expand...
joelkfla said:
I think all of the crossings on the new double trackage north of WPB are getting 4-quadrant gates, which will make it impossible for cars to go around unless they crash through a gate.
Click to expand...
If a vehicle is detected on the tracks when the gate on the exit side of the crossing closes, is there enough time for the PTC to stop the train before reaching the crossing? In the onboard camera video of this accident, it took 30 seconds from the time the car entered the tracks until full stop. There's some engineer reaction time in there, and I don't know whether he went into full emergency braking.

This is the camera footage, which was posted earlier:
 
Last edited:
The only consequence of there not being enough time to stop would be gates closing earlier, which would obviously be very unpopular.

Maybe a campaign could aim at connecting these two topics and telling motorists, if you feel frustrated about excessively long waiting times, don't blame the train but blame the idiots who race the train.
 
It doesn’t look like there were quad gates at that crossing. While it certainly doesn’t absolve the driver of any guilt and it won’t completely eliminate all collisions, I do think the local MPOs should look at funding improvements at crossings without quad gates and also fencing.
 
chrsjrcj said:
It doesn’t look like there were quad gates at that crossing. While it certainly doesn’t absolve the driver of any guilt and it won’t completely eliminate all collisions, I do think the local MPOs should look at funding improvements at crossings without quad gates and also fencing.
Click to expand...
I don't recall hearing that Brightline plans to upgrade crossings on the existing trackage to quad gates. The max speed on that segment is only 79 mph, while they've announced a max speed of 110 mph on at least parts of the trackage now being upgraded between WPB & Cocoa.

It certainly would be good PR for Brightline to upgrade them at their expense, or at least offer a 50-50 split with the locals.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top