Jeff Smith wrote:But people aren't perfect and situations are misjudged. How many near misses have we all been in? Think: There but for the grace of God go I.Thank you for that comment.
Railroad Forums
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Jeff Smith wrote:But people aren't perfect and situations are misjudged. How many near misses have we all been in? Think: There but for the grace of God go I.Thank you for that comment.
justalurker66 wrote:The closest idea to a pylon that I can imagine working would be the end of a Jersey barrier ramped down and buried to lift a vehicle up before it hit the exposed end of the rails. It would not need to be a full height barrier ... just enough to lift an object or dragging gear higher than the third rail.Now that's a quality solution! Relatively inexpensive, requires only the barest of maintenance, and very likely to actually work.
The closest idea to a pylon that I can imagine working would be the end of a Jersey barrier ramped down and buried to lift a vehicle up before it hit the exposed end of the rails.That seems like a good idea. A ramp that lifts anything approaching the end of the rail up and on top. Probably combine that idea with bending the end away from the tracks so that if something does hit, the rail deflects away, rather than piercing.
4400Washboard wrote: Keep in mind that this is a devekoping story.. While I do think the woman made a fatal and huge mistake, I wouldn't start slamming her until later on when more information comes out to solidify that she is an idiot.The latest I saw was that she was a 49 year old mother of three returning home from work. Yes, it was human error and her tragic mistake hurt more than just her own family. But unless she was impaired or unlicensed, I would agree with the above and I can only assume that panic set in under a stressful situation. This was clearly an accident with multiple contributing factors (grade crossing next to an intersection, third rail making an otherwise all too common grade crossing accident into a major disaster, etc.)
pnaw10 wrote:Prediction: grade crossings within third-rail territory will be eliminated.Where on earth do you think the MTA or the State of New York are going to come up with the extra few billion dollars or so that you'd need to grade-separate the Harlem Division or replace the third rail w catenary-- and buy a new MU fleet? They're having trouble enough funding the existing capital plan.
Initial (and also cheap) solution will be to simply wall-off streets with jersey barriers. Yes, the dead-ends will be inconvenient for awhile as people get used to finding the next-closest overpass crossing, but I predict lawmakers will frame it as an extra few minutes out of the way being better than risking another grade crossing crash. Kinda like when some of the at-grade intersections on the Taconic were eliminated years ago, by placing a barrier over the center median. Not sure if any of those intersections were in Westchester but I know there were a handful in Dutchess County.
Long-term, If it's ultimately decided that these streets need to be reopened... I'm not sure. First idea I had would be to elevate it like the LIRR Babylon Branch. But I know the Harlem Line has a pretty slim footprint in some areas of Westchester, so building new tracks next to the old ones may not be possible everywhere. Pulling this off might require closing one track in order to remove it and build the elevated structure, then repeat with the opposite track. One track serving both directions (for perhaps a year or more) would make things very difficult. This would be the most expensive, most complicated and most disruptive option.
On the other side of the spectrum, another possible solution may be to convert the line from third rail to catenary. This might be cheaper than building elevated tracks (and stations) and removing the old ones. But there would still be grade crossings -- just no third rail. As someone said a few pages back, there's still fire/shock hazards from catenary, though I'd imagine it would be considerably more difficult for a crash to cause the wires to fall down, as opposed to a car being pushed into a third rail. Other complications here include the need for more M8s and a sudden overstock of M7As, which would be relegated to the Hudson Line only. And, they'd have to trim or eliminate quite a few trees to avoid having trees fall on the lines... that might be a NIMBY hot button.
I'm not even going anywhere CLOSE to suggesting an "open cut" option à la the existing ROW through The Bronx. Would be expensive (moreso than an elevated line) and ugly.
Also, whatever happened to Operation Lifesaver? Does that still exist? I can't remember the last time I was exposed to any Operation Lifesaver ads or PSAs on TV, radio, online or in the newspaper. Maybe it's time to bring that back and refresh people on the basics of RR grade crossing safety.
pnaw10 wrote:Prediction: grade crossings within third-rail territory will be eliminated.Now we're in knee-jerk overreaction territory.
Initial (and also cheap) solution will be to simply wall-off streets with jersey barriers. Yes, the dead-ends will be inconvenient for awhile as people get used to finding the next-closest overpass crossing, but I predict lawmakers will frame it as an extra few minutes out of the way being better than risking another grade crossing crash. Kinda like when some of the at-grade intersections on the Taconic were eliminated years ago, by placing a barrier over the center median. Not sure if any of those intersections were in Westchester but I know there were a handful in Dutchess County.
Long-term, If it's ultimately decided that these streets need to be reopened... I'm not sure. First idea I had would be to elevate it like the LIRR Babylon Branch. But I know the Harlem Line has a pretty slim footprint in some areas of Westchester, so building new tracks next to the old ones may not be possible everywhere. Pulling this off might require closing one track in order to remove it and build the elevated structure, then repeat with the opposite track. One track serving both directions (for perhaps a year or more) would make things very difficult. This would be the most expensive, most complicated and most disruptive option.
On the other side of the spectrum, another possible solution may be to convert the line from third rail to catenary. This might be cheaper than building elevated tracks (and stations) and removing the old ones. But there would still be grade crossings -- just no third rail. As someone said a few pages back, there's still fire/shock hazards from catenary, though I'd imagine it would be considerably more difficult for a crash to cause the wires to fall down, as opposed to a car being pushed into a third rail. Other complications here include the need for more M8s and a sudden overstock of M7As, which would be relegated to the Hudson Line only. And, they'd have to trim or eliminate quite a few trees to avoid having trees fall on the lines... that might be a NIMBY hot button.
I'm not even going anywhere CLOSE to suggesting an "open cut" option à la the existing ROW through The Bronx. Would be expensive (moreso than an elevated line) and ugly.
Also, whatever happened to Operation Lifesaver? Does that still exist? I can't remember the last time I was exposed to any Operation Lifesaver ads or PSAs on TV, radio, online or in the newspaper. Maybe it's time to bring that back and refresh people on the basics of RR grade crossing safety.
F-line to Dudley via Park wrote: OK...maybe you make a symbolic elimination of this one. But that's all Westchester's going to get for 25 more years with all the design-builds of far more consequential eliminations on Long Island that would have to grind to completion. And that's WITH a hypothetical unlimited funding environment that we know doesn't exist in real life. Simple logistics says they're going to have to wait their turn.I do not know the traffic patterns in the area, but to me it seems that there is definitely enough space for a street overpass over the tracks and the Taconic. Such an overpass will eliminate the crossing and the intersection with the Taconic which just by itself seems an accident waiting to happen. I suspect that an overpass will cost somewhere on the order of $25-25MM which even though not cheap is probably doable. Eliminating the next crossing south at Lakeview is much harder and probably requires closing of the street, but with an overpass on Commerce that should not be too difficult to do. I am not holding my breath though. Last time the LIRR magled a car at the crossing nothing happened.
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Authorities knew the crossing had the potential to be hazardous. A predictive model developed by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) estimated that there was a 3 percent probability of a collision at the site in any given year. That’s the ninth-highest accident probability of any of Metro-North’s 44 rail crossings in New York and ranks higher than 90 percent of the state’s 2,675 crossings.
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...Among commuter-rail crossings, the Islip Avenue crossing in Central Islip on Long Island has the highest probability of a collision at 17.4 percent per year. Compared with those crossings, Metro-North’s aren’t considered particularly risky by the model; the system’s riskiest New York crossing is on Jay Street in Katonah, also in Westchester County, with a collision probability of 4.3 percent. (The railroad has three higher-risk crossings in Connecticut.)
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BenH wrote:Is that a section of the 3rd rail that this worker is cutting?!Yes, I am very curious to see how that much third rail managed to get thru the first car and actually pierce the 2nd.
Note: Fair-use low-resolution image attached. The original high-resolution image can be found on this link:
http://static1.nydailynews.com/polopoly ... -wreck.jpg
The original Daily News story, with the image, is on this link:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nts ... -1.2102750
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