Safety Information System of Indian Unmanned Railway Level Crossings

Abstract

In India, the unmanned railway level crossings are of major concerns these days because of rising rail-road accidents in India. There is an urgent need to develop an information system which can inform the users before hand of the approaching unmanned railway level crossings with their characteristics. Each unmanned level crossing was surveyed to collect the unmanned railway level crossing characteristics on Shahdra-Shamli-Tapri railway route through Global Position System and sensor. These are stored and analyzed through GIS software. The locations of railway stations were also surveyed. The level crossings are stored as points with its characteristics in geographical information system database, whereas the road and railway track are stored as line feature and villages as polygon features. Unmanned crossings accident statistics are stored and analyzed from year 2008 to 2013. The traffic flow characteristics of the road crossing the unmanned railway level crossings viz. traffic volume, peak hour factor and average daily traffic are also analyzed in this study. The study may lead to development of a warning system for road users so that they are aware about the different characteristics of the unmanned railway level crossing beforehand to alert them about the safety.