Risk Management at Railroad Grade Crossings: Proposal for a Decision Support System
Managing accident risk at Railway Level Crossings (RLCs) has been an important issue for both railway and highway infrastructure managers and operators. The term risk management of RLCs includes the process which is followed, the means used and measures taken in order to achieve a specific goal related to the aspect of safety of RLCs. Improvement of the safety level can be reached either by reducing the probability of having an accident or by reducing the consequences of the accidents or by their combination. Safety improvement is costly, however what is not often known is its correlation with the required cost. This paper presents a scientific "tool" for managing the safety of RLCs. A methodology is developed in order to assist the railway infrastructure managers to decide on the type and size of the interventions to be made at a level crossing of the railway network in order to improve its safety. The methodology uses the conventional evaluation indicators of the economic efficiency of an investment/project (NPV; IRR; cost/benefit ratio) as a criterion for the decision making; at the same time it enables the correlation of these indicators to the improvement of the safety level. The methodology is then applied to RLCs with specific constructional and operational characteristics. The proposed methodology may be applied in all incident categories and for various causes subject to appropriate modifications. Language: en