Level Crossing Safety Breifing

The campaign stems from the accident at Ufton Nervet Automatic Half Barrier Level Crossing in Berkshire on November 4^th 2004. A member of the public had driven on to the crossing with the intention - successful, as it turned out - of committing suicide.

The train hit the car, killing not only the owner of the car but the driver of the train.

However, this was the most high-profile of a series of cases involving accidents at unstaffed level crossings. In December last year, it was reported that Lincolnshire had experienced its ninth such accident in three years, the latest one at that point causing the deaths of two people.

There are 3,957 unstaffed level crossings throughout Britain and in 2003 there were 24 collisions between vehicles and trains at level crossings. In 2002 there were 16 and in 2001 and 2000 the figure was 17 for both years.

In fact, most train accidents in Britain now occur at level crossings and account for almost a quarter of railway fatalities.

Crossings are often on private land and in remote locations; frequently, they do not have automatic gates or a telephone.

At the time of the Ufton Nervet accident, the Strategic Rail Authority had no plans to replace self-operated crossings with automatic ones.

With the imminent abolition of the SRA and the transfer of its powers to central government, this position remains the same. However, there has been some progress toward addressing the problem of unstaffed level crossings.

ASLEF has looked at what action could possibly be taken, and in the course of this examination we chanced upon the existence of a system known as Trackmaster, which is produced by Global Laser Technology Solutions Ltd of Abertillery in Wales.

Trackmaster is a track-to-train surveillance system that gives the driver real-time video information about the situation on board the train, at stations and, more relevantly as far as ASLEF is concerned, warning of any hazard on the track. The driver has a warning of obstructions two miles before actually coming into contact with them (to put this in context, it takes a 125 train three-quarters of a mile to come to a halt when travelling at 125 miles an hour).

The system has operated on the Hong Kong track for an eight-year "trail run", which seems to have been successful.

The images are transmitted to the cab from transmitters by the side of the rails. The transmitters can withstand interference, vibration and changes in the weather. The trains are fitted with devices which look like headlamps but which are, in fact, video or audio receivers.

Keith Norman wrote to Alastair Darling concerning Trackmaster and we received a response in July in which the secretary of state said he had been advised by the Rail Safety and Standards Board that the system is "suited to a railway or metro system where there are dedicated train fleets and no interworking of trains from other areas. The RSSB's research will need to consider how mixed passenger and freight traffic, both the different types of trains and their different speeds, could affect the implementation of a system like Trackmaster."

Meanwhile, in the past few months, Network Rail, the Department for Transport, the RSSB, HMRI and the Strategic Rail Authority have sought suggestions for improved safety and have received 291 such suggestions. A panel of experts assembled by the DfT requested more information from 27 of which 10 replied.

NR is now in the process of following up four technological proposals and one organisational proposal which will be studies by the National Level Crossing Working Party. We do not at present know whether Trackmaster features in any of this but we have written to the secretary of state to clarify this point.

The RSSB is also pursuing a research project on obstacle detection.

It seems a meeting with either the minister or with John Armitt of Network Rail might be the most fruitful way of pursuing this issue.