I can't remember the last time I crossed a train track in western europe - trams yes but not trains. Is this being engineered into bridges and tunnels in this part of the world or is this increasingly common. I suddenly feel very safe.

▲

bluGill 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Grade crossings exist all over - they are so much vastly cheaper than the alternative that other options are often not reasonable. There are many possible reasons you don't see them where you are anyway.

I would guess that the reason you never cross them is that you rarely travel outside of cities. Within a city the population density makes the cost of not having a grade crossing (bridges are typically an order of magnitude more expensive) worth it. Often tracks converge into cities as well, so a grade crossing every half hour turns into the crossing closed more than open in a city thus splitting the city into parts: unacceptable.

I've personally crossed train tracks at grade in Western Europe so I know the crossings exist (or did 15 years ago when I was last there...) Though the freight train network in Western Europe is terrible by world standards (for both good and bad reasons), and that is going to drag down your sample size.

▲

1718627440 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The actual rules are different per-country, but the trend is the same. In Germany you aren't allowed to have crossings for lines permitted for over 160km/h. Also the former national railway company decided to not build new crossings at all. They have downsides for both participating transportation modes: less capacity, annoying waiting times, slower velocity, safety, security and availability issues. The only downside of bridges is space and cost.

	▲	iggldiggl 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		> Also the former national railway company decided to not build new crossings at all. At least partially that's actually the law as well – the default mode for new rail-road crossings is mandated to be grade-separation, with exceptions to that rule decided on a case-by-case basis, though primarily only in cases of low traffic (which in case of roads means ≤ 100 vehicles/day). Plus in actual practice the federal railway authority also having a reputation for a strict interpretation of that paragraph and tending to not grant exceptions has also done its thing, so in practice new level crossing on the federally-operated railway network (i.e. DB) are indeed a total rarity.

▲

b3orn 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I know about quite a few in Hamburg, Germany. Most level crossings are in the relatively low speed cargo rail system in the port, most of these only have traffic lights, but some don't even have that so you have to check if a train is coming and there were a few deadly collisions in the last few years. There aren't that many level crossings in the regular rail system in the city, but even there last year a deadly collision with a lorry happened.

▲

mlaretallack 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Loads of them in the UK. Especially in villages where it would be too expensive to install a bridge. Just look at the Southampton to Weymouth line.

▲

glitchcrab 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

There's two level crossings alone in my small UK town (~150k people)