A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion. Other names include railway level crossing, railway crossing, grade crossing or railroad crossing, road through railroad, criss-cross, train crossing, and RXR (abbreviated).
The Ufton Nervet rail crash occurred on 6 November 2004 when a passenger train collided with a stationary car on a level crossing on the Reading–Taunton line near Ufton Nervet, Berkshire, England. The collision derailed the train, and seven people—including the drivers of the train and the car—were killed. An inquest found that all railway personnel and systems were operating correctly, and the crash was caused by the suicide of the car driver.
The 1995 Fox River Grove bus–train collision was a grade crossing collision that killed seven students riding aboard a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, on the morning of October 25, 1995. The school bus, driven by a substitute driver, was stopped at a traffic light with the rearmost portion extending onto a portion of the railroad tracks when it was struck by a Metra Union Pacific Northwest Line train en route to Chicago.
The Gilchrest Road crossing accident was a grade crossing incident that occurred on March 24, 1972, in the town of Clarkstown, New York, between the hamlets of Valley Cottage and Congers, roughly 25 miles (40 km) northwest of New York City. Five students from Valley Cottage were killed, and 44 others were injured.
The Kasganj level crossing disaster was the crash of a passenger bus with an express train near the town of Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh, India on 4 June 2002.
In Lockington, England on 26 July 1986, the 09:33 passenger train from Bridlington to Kingston upon Hull on the Hull to Scarborough Line struck a passenger van on a level crossing.
The Sri Lanka Railway Department is Sri Lanka's railway owner and primary operator. As part of the Sri Lankan government, it is overseen by the Ministry of Transport. Founded in 1858 as the Ceylon Government Railway, it operates the nation's railways and links Colombo with other population centres and tourist destinations.
The HaBonim disaster was an accident which took place on June 11, 1985, when an Israel Railways train collided with a bus carrying schoolchildren on a field trip from Y.H. Brenner middle school in Petah Tikva, Israel. The crash happened near Moshav HaBonim, killing 22 people, and injuring 17.
The Langenweddingen rail disaster near Magdeburg in East Germany caused 94 deaths. It occurred on 6 July 1967 at the village of Langenweddingen, today part of the Sülzetal municipality, on the Magdeburg–Thale railway in the then East Germany when a bilevel train struck a fuel tanker, which exploded as a result of the collision, at a level crossing of Highway 81.
Railway crashes and derailments in Vietnam are common. In 2010, 451 railway incidents were reported across the country's railway network, having caused 211 deaths and 284 injuries. A joint Japanese-Vietnamese evaluation team reported in 2007 that the poor state of railway infrastructure was the fundamental cause for most railway incidents, of which the most common types were train crashes against vehicles and persons, especially at illegal level crossings; derailments caused by failure to decrease speed were also noted as a common cause of accidents. As of 2010, around 90% of all railway incidents occurred at level crossings without safety fences, and most were said to have been caused by motorists failing to follow traffic safety laws.
The Marhanets train accident occurred on 12 October 2010, at Marhanets, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine when a train collided with a passenger bus on a railroad level crossing. 43 people were reported dead and nine injured. The bus driver, whose actions allegedly caused the collision, was killed in the accident as well. The collision was the worst single road accident in Ukraine's history by number of victims.
The northern line is a railway line in Sri Lanka. Branching off the Main Line at Polgahawela Junction the line heads north through North Western, North Central and Northern provinces before terminating at the northern port of Kankesanthurai. The line is 339 kilometres (211 mi) long and has 55 stations between Polgahawela Junction and Vavuniya. It is the longest railway line in Sri Lanka. The line opened in 1894. Major cities served by the line include Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Vavuniya,Kilinochchi and Jaffna. The popular Yal Devi service operates on the line. The line was severely affected by the civil war and no services operated north of Vavuniya after 1990. Reconstruction of this section of the line commenced following the end of the civil war in 2009 and was fully completed in early 2015.
The Main Line is a major railway line in the rail network of Sri Lanka and considered by many to be one of the most scenic train journeys in all of Asia. The line begins at Colombo Fort and winds through the Sri Lankan hill country to reach Badulla.
On the evening of February 3, 2015, a commuter train on Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line struck a passenger car at a grade crossing near Valhalla, New York, United States, between the Valhalla and Mount Pleasant stations, killing six people and injuring 15 others, seven very seriously. The crash is the deadliest in Metro-North's history, and at the time the deadliest rail accident in the United States since the June 2009 Washington Metro train collision, which killed nine passengers and injured 80.
There are around 6,000 level crossings in the United Kingdom, of which about 1,500 are public highway crossings. This number is gradually being reduced as the risk of accidents at level crossings is considered high. The director of the UK Railway Inspectorate commented in 2004 that "the use of level crossings contributes the greatest potential for catastrophic risk on the railways." The creation of new level crossings on the national network is banned, with bridges and tunnels being the more favoured options. The cost of making significant reductions, other than by simply closing the crossings, is substantial; some commentators argue that the money could be better spent. Some 5,000 crossings are user-worked crossings or footpaths with very low usage. The removal of crossings can improve train performance and lower accident rates, as some crossings have low rail speed limits enforced on them to protect road users. In fact, between 1845 and 1933, there was a 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h) speed limit on level crossings of turnpike roads adjacent to stations for lines whose authorising act of Parliament had been consolidated in the Railways Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 although this limit was at least sometimes disregarded.
Alawwa Railway Station is a railway station in the town of Alawwa, which is located in the Kurunegala District of Sri Lanka. The station is owned by Sri Lanka Railways, the state-owned railway operator, the station is part of the Main line which links Badulla with the country's capital Colombo.
