Horrible accident in Flores

[GuilleGee]

Average cost of eliminating such a crossing in France is around 3/4.5 million EUR (non urban areas I guess).
Here, in an urban area, if it costs like 20 million pesos each and if there are 300 of those in the city (no idea, just an approximation ?) = 6 billion pesos.

There are many projects that are currently working to eliminate grade crossings, although most focus on grade crossings of the Mitre, San Martin, Urquiza, Roca and Belgrano rail lines. The Sarmiento line, where this accident took place, is currently not being considered for any quick grade crossing solutions due to a megaproject nfk & cfk announced about 6 years ago to run the sarmiento completely underground that had never gotten started. (they finally got around to put up the signs earlier this new, but nonetheless have not started anything).

Of course completely underground rail in Urban Areas is the final solutions with the old rail way being used as biking/walking paths, but this needs to be done slowly. It would be best in my mind for the government, either city or nation, to put the sarmiento in a slightly below grade open tunnel so they can create street bridges above the line. OF course there are many engineering problems, and people just don't have the political will to commit to this fixing this problem, which will inevitably cause problems in the service during the time the solutions is being worked on...

 

[GuilleGee]

I would add that all of French Jurist's suggestions are very good ones

 

[sergio]

There are many projects that are currently working to eliminate grade crossings, although most focus on grade crossings of the Mitre, San Martin, Urquiza, Roca and Belgrano rail lines.

This is good to hear. Seems there IS money despite what someone posted here that it is too expensive. Grade crossings in major, high density urban areas is just ridiculous, frankly primitive. They exist in Belgrano outside the Juramento station which is inexcusable. Whatever these projects cost, they build a decent infrastructure and create jobs.

 

[Santiago F]

Average cost of eliminating such a crossing in France is around 3/4.5 million EUR (non urban areas I guess).
Here, in an urban area, if it costs like 20 million pesos each and if there are 300 of those in the city (no idea, just an approximation ?) = 6 billion pesos.

I guess the Riachuelo will be clean before that (likely on a February 30th).

I think it's better to make all the suburban rail lines elevated, thus eliminating all level crossings, and potentially opening all the streets that today are interrupted due to the tracks. This at first glance seems to be very costly, but I wonder if it is, indeed, less expensive than eliminating the whole 300 or so level crossings one by one (building tunnels or bridges for each).

 

[Gringoboy]

I'm currently in UK and just read the news, which sadly came as no great surprise.
Without the political will, only education and tough sanctions will help to change this culture of jumping the barriers.
The barriers in Benavidez have been largely destroyed by cars and buses. Accidents waiting to happen.

 

[marksoc]

I think it's better to make all the suburban rail lines elevated, thus eliminating all level crossings, and potentially opening all the streets that today are interrupted due to the tracks. This at first glance seems to be very costly, but I wonder if it is, indeed, less expensive than eliminating the whole 300 or so level crossings one by one (building tunnels or bridges for each).

MONO... RIEL! Now, seriously, it is better to do the tunnels. Just imagine living in front of an elevated monstrosity (like the BA highway). No thanks.

 

[captainmcd]

I often cross this line at Donato Alvarez and Yerbal in Flores, and often see people cross the tracks when the gate is down. Sadly there seems to be a lack of discipline in people regarding this. I also live in Houston, where trains are longer, and we have many grade crossings, and you sometimes have to wait 20 minutes for a freight train to pass, but people are more careful about crossings and also traffic lights are computer controlled, so that when a train is comming, the traffic on the crossing is allowed to advance, and nobody should be stuck on the tracks. The cost of this is less than elimination of all grade crossings.

 

[MizzMarr]

I often cross this line at Donato Alvarez and Yerbal in Flores, and often see people cross the tracks when the gate is down. Sadly there seems to be a lack of discipline in people regarding this. I also live in Houston, where trains are longer, and we have many grade crossings, and you sometimes have to wait 20 minutes for a freight train to pass, but people are more careful about crossings and also traffic lights are computer controlled, so that when a train is comming, the traffic on the crossing is allowed to advance, and nobody should be stuck on the tracks. The cost of this is less than elimination of all grade crossings.

People crossing (or bicycles crossing) the tracks when the gate is down is a vastly different story than a person driving a large vehicle loaded up with passengers. I am an "early crosser" if you will--that is, when I'm on bike or on foot and I can pass through, get close to the tracks, look both directions and SEE where the train is and how far away it is, then decide if it's safe to make a crossing I'll go ahead and do so. It is important to look both ways, though!

Frequently the gates come down well in advance of a train coming, and will stay down if there is another train within the distance of the next stop--cars can be sitting there for 10-15 minutes. I feel for the drivers stuck in the traffic (and agree that tunnels would be a great solution for this, but based on the money involved and snail's pace the subway lines are being expanded don't hold out a lot of hope for this being changed any time soon), but when you can't see and can't account for what's happening, it's prudent to wait. What that bus driver did was inexcusable.

 

[Godiva.]

The government has a hard enough time filling potholes - I don't have much faith in their ability or will to do away with all grade crossings.

What they should do right now is make sure that 1. the barriers, lights, and bells are working correctly at every crossing and 2. that people respect them. You really need both things.

There is a culture of disregarding safety precautions (often because they don't work due to low maintenance or inefficient poor design), a crumbling infrastructure (from broken barriers to lousy roads), a lack of penalties for breaking the law, and no responsibility or foresight from the part of the government.

Ultimately it was the colectivo driver's fault. All the safety precautions in the world aren't going to help if a driver just decides to roll the dice.

 

[dennisr]

What a mess
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...NUFfbw?docId=2d139034bf514875b8c519daffba715a