Railway crossing maps for autonomous road freight capabilities

The final report on the Mapping passive railway crossings to inform freight potential project has been issued. NTRO (formerly ACRI, the Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation) and iMOVE Australia funded the project with involvement from RMIT University and ACRI stakeholders.

The project investigated how mapping could support the research and development requirements for autonomous road freight capabilities in Australia. A key focus was how maps could improve stakeholder understanding of how passive level crossings influence the interactions between road and rail vehicles.

Objectives

The project aimed to create maps of freight routes and nearby passive railway level crossings. These maps would help drive research discussions to manage the transition to autonomous freight capabilities in Australia. The project team held stakeholder workshops, reported on those findings, and then used them to inform prototypes that were developed into the final maps.

Additionally, the project highlighted the critical issues that must be resolved before autonomous vehicles can be safely integrated into Australia’s road network.

Background

About 19,000 passive railway crossings currently exist across Australia. The shift to autonomous vehicles presents challenges (safety) and opportunities (efficiencies). The process needs the collaboration of private and public sector stakeholders, from individuals to the national government. Before the Passive Railway Crossings Mapping project, there was a lack of understanding regarding the specific types of data and information necessary for this research.

Before any of these maps could be made, there was significant effort required to stitch together data from a range of sources. In many cases, the custodians of data sets are individual state road authorities, other state-based agencies, or private rail infrastructure managers, each of which has their own idiosyncratic manner of structuring the data.

A significant challenge was the need to stitch together data from a range of sources. Each source, such as state road authorities or private rail infrastructure managers, for example, has its own way of structuring the data.

Methodology

The methodology harnessed was user-centred cartographic design methodology (Combining Usability Techniques to Design Geovisualization Tools for Epidemiology, Robinson et al., 2005), which helps create maps that focus on the needs and preferences of stakeholders.

The project comprised three phases:

• Scoping;
• Developing map prototypes; and
• Implementing and delivering the final map designs.

For the scoping phase, ACRI held preliminary discussions and interviews with its team and the end users of the maps this project would produce. End users included the:

• Australian Rail Track Corporation;
• Australian Government – Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications;
• Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation;
• National Heavy Vehicle Registry (NHVR);
• AustRoads;
• Australasian Railway Association, and
• Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator.

The project team used the web-based StoryMaps platform to help visualise the types of road-rail interactions along freight roads and the effect passive rail crossings could have on these vehicle interactions. The platform lets users combine maps, text, images, and other media forms to develop interactive, multi-media-rich stories. For example, one of the maps allowed users to discover how many passive level crossings would be encountered on an ARTC-controlled track within five kilometres of any nationally designated key freight route. Users in the workshop could interact with that map with a mouse click or by entering an origin and destination. By sharing and discussing these maps during the stakeholder discussions, the researchers were able to refine their prototypes.

Example screenshot from version 2 of the level-crossing scale prototype

Next, they sought feedback on the refined maps via interviews and another series of workshops. They involved more stakeholders, such as the Office for Future Transport, Arc Infrastructure, Transport for NSW, Queensland Transport and Main Roads, TasRail, and the Public Transit Authority (WA).

As with any methodology, there were limitations:

1. The project’s short time frame reduced the number of rounds of data discovery and design iteration. A longer project could have obtained more of the desired data.
2. The stakeholder workshops did not include representatives from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport, and Regional Economics, a federal agency that has much of the relevant existing data for this project.
3. There may be errors or missing data in some data sets despite the RMIT University team cross-checking and verifying the validity of the data sources. Some disclaimers were needed with each map.

Results

Thanks to stakeholders’ feedback on the maps presented, the project team included these aspects in the final set of maps:

Extra data themes, including:

• AusRAP risk ratings;
• Mobile phone signal availability and strength from three carriers;
• Incidents at level crossings; and
• Road accident death and injury data.

Additional functionality:

• Model vehicles of the correct dimensions based on the NHVR’s heavy vehicles documentation to better show potential safety issues for autonomous vehicles; and
• More statistical indicators about routes and level crossings.

Enhanced map usability:

• Providing more intuitive names for database fields;
• Adjusting map filter defaults; and
• Offering map users more precision in how they can filter the values.

The final maps also included information about data sources and limitations for using these maps by describing for what uses they are or are not suitable.

Conclusions

The project successfully synthesised the views of representatives from diverse stakeholder organisations to explore the potential advantages and drawbacks of autonomous vehicles traversing passive level crossings on or near major freight routes.

Participants offered insights into map use to the project team. The maps can help compare options for investing in level-crossing improvements. This feature was due to the maps showing potential problem areas, such as where short stacking might happen, as well as the possible benefit of modifying these areas. Options include lessening the amount of traffic or lowering wait times. The maps could be used to assess the suitability of road access. Another idea was the maps offer a consistent information source for truck operators to communicate access information, particularly for the ‘last mile’ of their trips.

Meanwhile, workshop participants also said the maps were ideal tools to engage stakeholders in the future. The Office of the National Rail Safety Register said using the StoryMap inspired them in its work with their Level Crossing Reporting Portal.

The initial introduction of autonomous truck freight configurations will likely involve vehicle platoons that are driven by a human driver at the front of the platoon. Sighting distances as assessed at level crossings are currently undertaken at the height of a vehicle in a passenger car rather than from a heavy vehicle.

Additionally, similar tools could help aid line of sight visualisations at level crossings. Now, they rely on the height of a passenger car rather than someone in a truck. Initially, a human driver would be in the first vehicle of an autonomous truck freight platoon. More research is needed on sourcing reliable and nationally consistent data on relevant themes to expand the efforts of the National Freight Data Hub and the Level Crossing Reporting Portal.

Overall, the project’s visual tools helped support an expansive discussion that spelt out the issues that need consideration to support autonomous road freight vehicles being introduced onto Australian roads.

Expected project impacts

The visual tools developed in this project will aid in our understanding of the issues around road-rail interactions at passive level crossings and help to safely integrate autonomous road freight vehicles into Australia’s road network.

Paul Bennett, Senior Technology Leader, Asset Performance, Transport Futures at the National Transport Research Organisation (NTRO)

Final report

Download your copy of the final report, Passive Railway Crossings Mapping, by clicking the button below.