South and Central Florida Grade Crossing discussion

[railiner]

So, perhaps all those roads should have had overpasses at the crossings - since they came after the tracks.

The short answer is, there is no easy/cheap fix to the physical crossings - but the simple, no-cost remedy is for the people in cars and on foot to obey the law, stop-look-listen and don't try to beat-the-train

I wonder if it would be worthwhile, (or even possible) for Florida to finance expanding the FEC into a four track line, at the same time eliminating many of its grade crossings, and close the Tri Rail line between West Palm Beach and Miami, therefore eliminating all of those grade crossings?

Probably not...

 

[user 1215]

So, perhaps all those roads should have had overpasses at the crossings - since they came after the tracks.

The short answer is, there is no easy/cheap fix to the physical crossings - but the simple, no-cost remedy is for the people in cars and on foot to obey the law, stop-look-listen and don't try to beat-the-train

I don't disagree. CSX is mostly grade separated from WPB to Miami. I don't know, but I figure the cities having to decide whether to build overpasses over the CSX vs the FECRR came down to the fact that the mighty Class I was much busier and therefore a greater hinderance to traffic than the humble, yet powerful "local" Florida East coast. Perhaps one reason why Tri-Rail was established on the CSX line (ACL, SCL, or whatever the legacies were) vs the FEC to begin with.

The big problem with South Florida is that you can't go under grade. You pretty much have to go over. It's much more difficult to get the train to bob up and down every mile or two. Bridges are expensive, though.

Does anyone know how many grade crossings were, or plan to be actually eliminated?

 

[jis]

Does anyone know how many grade crossings were, or plan to be actually eliminated?

I don't know about other Counties, but the problem in Brevard County is that the FECR RoW is too close to US Rt. 1 in many places, and cross streets coming into US Rt 1. do not have any space to ramp upto an overpass over the railroad. In spite of that there are a few overpasses.

Conlan Blvd was built with an overpass and incidentally could potentially be used to eliminate the Palm Bay Road grade crossing after much bellyaching, no doubt. Pineda Causeway was converted from a grade crossing to an overpass as part of this project. I think potentially Grant Road and Valkaria Road can be converted. Beyond that, with greater cost of building complex ramp systems potentially Malabar Road, Palm Bay Road, Port Malabar Road are possible. North of that it is going to be difficult. It really would be easier to raise the railroad on a continuous viaduct and embankment (like the LIRR South Shore (Babylon) Line on Long Island) than build overpasses for zillions of cross roads with no place to build any ramp on the Indian River Lagoon side.

Indian River County has similar issues with most cross roads, especially in Vero Beach and Sebastian/Roseland..

 

[GDRRiley]

So, perhaps all those roads should have had overpasses at the crossings - since they came after the tracks.

grade separating more lines 75-100 years ago would have been a great thing but we just never cared about that.

 

[jis]

grade separating more lines 75-100 years ago would have been a great thing but we just never cared about that.

The main reason for justifying grade separation, where it is done, tends to be either speed or frequency or both. Neither of those were a major factor on the FECR when the population grew around it and caused the construction of all the grade crossings. If rail traffic increases in frequency sufficinetly and/or higher speeds are desired then the route will get grade separated. It will cost a pretty penny.

Many of the territories that are now grade separated were all built at ground level with zillions of grade crossings and were subsequently elevated to grade separate. This includes all of NEC and the LIRR South Shore Line and others.