Assessment of the Perspective Ratios in Rail Crossings as an Important Evaluation Factor of Rail Crossings

Abstract

It is currently necessary to solve several bottlenecks in railway infrastructure. This is important because it is needed to improve railway infrastructure to be faster, safer and of high quality. Rail crossings on railway lines are also a significant bottleneck. There are still many rail crossings and a high number of accidents in many countries of the European Union. The issue of rail crossings must be addressed because many rail crossings reduce the flow of road and railway traffic. However, it is about the safety of transportation, as several serious and fatal traffic accidents have happened at rail crossings. Many times, the perspective ratios of the rail crossings are a significant problem and the main cause of traffic accidents. Therefore, it is important to propose a certain methodological procedure for the assessment of the perspective ratios in rail crossings. The main contribution goal is to briefly describe the development of the rail crossings number according to security devices and analyze the factors influencing the rail crossing potential and restrictive elements factors of the rail crossings as a matter of priority. Great emphasis is placed on the perspective ratios as a key safety factor. The heuristic procedure of the perspective ratios determination is presented within the proposals. Subsequently, there are analyzed the perspective ratios at the selected rail crossing with the light protection device and to assess whether these ratios are safe for the given crossing in the event of the light protection device failure. The rail crossing in the Czech Republic has been selected as a representative on railway line no. 196 from České Budějovice to Horní Dvořiště in the empirical part of the research. The rail crossing has been analyzed in terms of its characteristics and parameters and has been assessed as complying with legal regulations.