Transport and Public Works
- Where are the 43 railway level crossings in the Western Cape situated, (b) when did the level-crossing elimination programme start, (c) where were the level crossings that have been removed, (d) how do motorists and residents cross those railway lines now, (e) what is the budget allocation for the elimination of the 43 level crossings, (f) what is the amount that has already been spent on eliminating seven of these level crossings, (g) when will the remaining 36 level crossings be eliminated and (h) how will motorists and people cross the railway line thereafter?
General Introduction to Railway Level Crossings
- Existing Legislation
Several legislative and policy documents are applicable when considering the governance of level crossings within the country.
These include:
- Act No. 93: National Road Traffic Act of 1996,
- Act No. 16: National Railway Safety Regulator Act of 2002,
- SANS 3000-1:2005 Railway Safety Management (2005),
- SANS 3000-2-2-1: Railway Safety Management: Part 2-2-1 (2005) and the,
- South African Road Traffic Signage Manual (SARTSM, 2012).
These legislative documents mainly strive to ensure uniformity in safety standards, design and regulatory practices towards maintaining safety in operation.
- Current Institutional Arrangements
Transnet and PRASA (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) both have the authority to authorise a level crossing after consulting with the local or provincial road authority. Once implemented, the relevant road authority becomes the responsible authority.
The services of a (road or local) authority for the erection and maintenance of road signs / markings and signals at level crossings may be requested by the rail authority, but it is the rail operator, Metrorail, who remains the responsible authority for the maintenance of the operational asset base.
There may therefore be some ambiguity in the management of level crossings and thus, towards defining these roles, road authorities and railway operators are thus compelled (according to SARTSM) to enter into agreements for allocation of the maintenance responsibility of the road sections at railway crossings.
Response to Question Posed:
- The Western Cape Metrorail region has the highest number of level crossings (40) within its rail network. Thirty seven (37) of these belong to PRASA. The remaining three (3) belong to Transnet Freight Rail but are also used by Metrorail.
Twenty nine (29) level crossings are situated in the northern service corridor, with the highest number of rail incidents at level crossings along the Eerste River - Stellenbosch railway line.
- The level crossing elimination programme started in the 1980s under the government administration at the time and involved a systematic elimination of level-crossings based on a risk-assessment scoring system. This programme was cancelled in the late 1980s.
After the Buttskop incident in August 2010, the Province held a Level Crossing Indaba, together with LeadSA, bringing together all government stakeholders, affected communities and activists to discuss the tragedy and look for new thinking and potential solutions.
As a result of the Indaba, a Level Crossing Task Team was established, to take immediate steps to mitigate risk at level crossings in the Western Cape.
A process was initiated which eliminated the most dangerous crossings on provincial roads.
- Three projects were initiated which included the removal of 6 level crossings and 2 farm crossings, bringing the total number of crossings removed to 8.
The project comprised:
- Building of an overhead bridge at Vlaeberg level crossing.
- Erection of a footbridge for pedestrians at Lynedoch level crossing.
- Upgrading of Metrorail’s service road in the section between Vlaeberg and Vlottenberg to a provincial road.
- A combination of overhead vehicular bridges and grade-seperated pedestrian footbridges are the main options for crossing the railway line in the project areas described in (c) above.
- The elimination of level crossings is currently unfunded. Level crossing projects are usually mainly funded by the Rail Operator with possible support from the relevant Road Authority. This may be Prasa-Metrorail/TFR and Provincial Government or Prasa-Metrorail/TFR and the Local Municipality.
- Regarding the projects listed in item (c) above: The project was a collaboration between the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) and the Western Cape Government at a cost totalling R70.7 million.
- See item (e) above.
It must be noted that level crossing elimination may not always be practical in certain scenarios depending on local conditions.
Instead, the risk at each level crossing needs to be understood so that efforts can be directed to those crossings that are most likely to result in death or serious injury. A systems approach to level crossings is required, recognising human tolerance and fallibility and the interactions between the key components that can contribute to serious casualty outcomes. An approach including engineering, enforcement, education and elimination in the context of railway level crossings is required.
- The safest form of railway level crossing elimination is grade-separation. Grade separation is a very expensive option which involves building either an overpass or underpass to separate the train tracks and the road.
In other cases, the road may be realigned to improve sight distance at uncontrolled or controlled rail crossings.
