Many light rail transit (LRT) agencies and commuter railroads across the United States have been experiencing difficulty in effectively communicating with motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists that a light rail vehicle (LRV) or train is approaching the at-grade crossing. For this purpose, LRT agencies have installed LRV-actuated, internally illuminated, warning signs with legends such as TRAIN, TROLLEY COMING, TRAIN APPROACHING, etc. These active signs warn motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists of the increased risk associated with violating the primary regulatory crossing control device (e.g., a standard traffic/pedestrian signal), which prohibits crossing when the LRV is approaching. Although these active warning signs have proven somewhat effective, they provide only a legend (i.e., words only) and thus take some time to comprehend and react, plus they may not be fully understood by those people who do not typically communicate in English.

This issue is further complicated when two LRVs or commuter trains approach a crossing from opposite directions and would arrive there almost simultaneously. Assuming that the primary, regulatory crossing control device is prohibiting movement across the track area because of the first LRV that passed through the crossing, crossing users (especially pedestrian and bicyclists) will tend to cross immediately after the first LRV clears the crossing and get struck by the second, opposite direction LRV, whose view may have been partially blocked by the passage of the first. To address this problem, some LRT systems have installed LRV-actuated, internally illuminated signs with legends such as CAUTION: SECOND TRAIN APPROACHING. However, this legend sign is often not fully understood by those people who do not typically communicate in English. Further, this sign does not provide any information to the crossing user about the direction or speed at which either LRV is approaching the crossing.

The objectives of this project are (1) to develop one or more prototype second train coming warning signs applicable to railroad grade crossings with high train frequency and train operations generally at speeds in excess of 35 mph, and (2) to evaluate the impact of the prototype sign in operation.

Status: The project is completed. The project was approved by the TOPS Committee as a Testing and Demonstration Project that was managed by the FTA. The Maryland Mass Transit Authority (Baltimore) was identified as a demonstration site. The final reports for both this project and TCRP Project A-5A(1) are published in TCRP Research Results Digest 51. TCRP Research Results Digest 51 is also available in portable document format (PDF). (A free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader is available at https://www.adobe.com.)