VINCENNES, Ind. — The city of Vincennes has reached agreement with a Muncie, Ind., company to install a system informing drivers when railroad grade crossings are blocked.
PBS station WVUT reports the city’s Board of Works approved a Memorandum of Understanding with Interfact to install cameras at six grade crossings in the city. Those cameras take a picture every minute, sending the images to a free app that drivers can check to see which crossings are clear.
Each of the solar-powered cameras costs $1,000 to install and $500 annually to maintain.
Interfact’s system is currently being tried in Muncie, thanks to funding from the City of Muncie and Ball State University. More information is available here.
A similar system, from the company BlockedCrossings, is being tried in the Goshen, Ind., area [see “New company uses cameras …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 12, 2024].
Wouldn’t want the facts to get in the way of a good story.
Vincennes is only served by 1 railroad now, CSX.
The former C&EI that brings traffic to/from Chicago from the yard in Hopkinsville.
The former B&O that runs from East St Louis to Queensgate in Cincy.
The old C&EI is busy, the old B&O is not.
The Illinois Sub West only works as far west as Flora, IL and is handled by a once in a week local. The Illinois/Indiana Sub East has little traffic to Mitchell and almost none to Seymour due to tunnels that can’t take double stacks.
So I am trying to figure out what would block an intersection for so long?
All the local traffic is staged at Alice Yards south of town.
The NYC/Penn Central Egyptian line through Vincennes was torn out ages ago
I suggest a modification to the program. After 20 minutes of blockage, the system starts sending a message every minute to the cell phone of the railroad’s CEO.
This system allows you to enroll in direct alerts. 🙂