USA Banner

Official US Government Icon

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure Site Icon

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

Illinois High-Speed Rail Four-Quadrant Gate Reliability Assessment

Document Series:
Technical Reports
Author:
  • Federal Railroad Administration
Report Number
DOT/FRA/ORD-09/19
Office
RDI-20
Subject:
Grade Crossing TechnologyHigh-Speed Passenger Rail
Keywords:
Four Quadrant Gate; highway-rail intersection; accident reduction; alternative safety measures; safety; reliability assessment; high speed rail; signaling/control technologies; vehicle detection; inductive loops

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) tasked the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) to conduct a reliability analysis of the four-quadrant gate/vehicle detection equipment installed on the future high-speed rail (HSR) corridor between Chicago and St Louis. A total of 69 highway-rail grade crossings on a 121-mile (195 km) segment of the 280-mile corridor were equipped with four-quadrant gates and inductive loop vehicle detection technology. This segment, between Mazonia and Springfield Illinois, will eventually carry passenger trains at speeds up to 110 mph (177 km/h) at many of the highway-rail grade crossings. The analysis was based on maintenance records obtained from the Union Pacific Railroad, the owner and operator of the highway-rail grade crossings. The results were used to assess the impact of the equipment reliability on the proposed HSR timetable. The Volpe Center study showed that the total average delay to the five scheduled daily high-speed passenger round-trips was an estimated 38.5 minutes, or approximately 4 minutes per train. Overall, extensive analysis of the trouble ticket data showed that the four-quadrant gate and vehicle detection equipment had a minimal direct impact on the frequency and duration of grade crossing malfunctions.


DOT is committed to ensuring that information is available in appropriate alternative formats to meet the requirements of persons who have a disability. If you require an alternative version of files provided on this page, please contact FRADevOps@dot.gov.
Last updated: Thursday, October 1, 2009