Measures to reduce accidents at railroad crossings nationwide are part of a six-year railway safety plan, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said on Monday.
Accidents at railway crossings fell to only 12 last year, but have rebounded this year, with 11 in the first six months alone, the TRA said.
The measures include installing large signs on gantries above every crossing to inform people that a train is coming and from which direction, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Railways Administration
Flashing signals would be installed on both sides of the road at crossings, the agency said, adding that there would be four sets of emergency buttons, up from two.
The safety improvements would be completed by the end of next month, it said.
New automatic systems to detect objects intruding on tracks would be installed at all 293 crossings on its routes, the TRA said.
The new system detects intruding objects using radar and thermal induction technology, which improves its sensitivity, it said.
The current system detects objects between 75cm and 1.5m in height, while the new system detects objects that are from 30cm to 3m tall, the agency said.
When an object is detected, the information would be relayed to train drivers so they can respond quickly to an emergency situation, the TRA said, adding that the system would be activated at 100 crossings by the end of this year.
Systems at the remaining crossings would be activated by the end of next year, it said.
The agency said that 1,200km of fiber optic cabling would be installed along its routes to replace copper cables, which would ensure the reliability and stability of its signal-monitoring system.
The project is to be completed by the end of this year, it said.
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