UPDATE: VRE Bill Targets Walkers Who Skirt Signal Gates

Pedestrians crossing Virginia railroad tracks while signal gates are down could be fined as much as $500 if the General Assembly passes legislation introduced by Virginia Railway Express. The bill is set to be heard on the floor of the House of Delegates tomorrow.

There have been no fatal accidents involving VRE trains and pedestrians. However, last month, an accident nearly occurred at the Quantico station when passengers crossed the track despite signals being down. A man slipped on ice on the tracks and fell directly in front of a freight train. A member of the military, however, ran out to help the man up and escape the approaching train.

VRE officials said they want to see legislation enacted immediately to keep riders and pedestrians safe.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 04281.html

Unfortunately, this bill did not pass as the republicans voted against it

Jeez, it should apply to people crossing across-the-track walkways too. I saw some dingbat a couple of months ago walk right in front of a VRE F40 at Alexandria, when the locomotive was FIFTEEN feet away from him. Didn't get hit, but that wouldn't have been pretty with about 300 people on the platform to watch. People are just stupid. There should be a fine for people who walk across the tracks at stations without the permission of the station crew.

Riverdale and Gaithersburg are unique stations, in that the platforms extend all the way to a street crossing. In Gaithersburg (where the tracks are crossed by a very busy 4-lane road), they have a lot of precautionary signals to prevent accidents including traffic lights, elevated signal lights, and individual crossing gates for the sidewalks, as well as the normal setup. In addition northbound trains stop past the station platform with the diesel and/or 1 and a half cars blocking the road, to discourage cars or pedestrians from circumventing the gates. Passengers from the first two cars are actually unloaded on the street itself. Southbound trains (those shorter than 6 cars), however, clear the road when they stop.

Riverdale is similar but the station itself isn't as busy, as only a few trains stop there. The road crossing is only two lanes, but is still very busy. Recently they installed four quadrant gates to make circumvention impossible.