LOS ANGELES — Commuter operator Metrolink has expanded its use of a “smart crossing” technology to prevent unnecessary crossing-gate activation when a train is stopping at a nearby station, adding it at one location in Riverside, Calif., and one in Moorpark.
The Wireless Crossing Nearside Station Stop is now in use near the Hunter Park/UC Riverside station in Riverside, and at Moorpark Avenue, west of the Moorpark station. Before WCNSS was introduced, trains stopping at these stations would activate crossing gates beyond the stop; those gates would reset when the train stopped at the station, then lower again as the train departed. The system eliminates the unnecessary first gate activation by communicating with the gates through positive train control, setting them off as the train departs from its stop.
The technology was first introduced on seven crossings on the Arrow service route between San Bernardino and Redlands, Calif. Its first use on the full Metrolink system was in San Juan Capistrano in June 2024 [see “Metrolink introduces ‘smart crossing’ technology …,” Trains News Wire, June 4, 2024]. Its use has prevented an estimated 1,584 unnecessary activations and some 36 hours of delays in the last year, Metrolink said in a press release.
The Juniper Avenue Crossing in Fontana received WCNSS in February. A total of 52 crossings are eligible for the system; Metrolink is seeking funding to expand its use to the remaining sites.
— Updated at 5:35 p.m. CT to correct location of first smart crossing on Metrolink.
Glad they’re putting this technology in. Signals are not supposed to activate until the train is out of the block and away from the station. Before PTC Metrolink and BNSF Trains coming into the station have to stop right on the cross and whenever Metrolink made a pickup and the gates were always down. Now the gates only drop when the Metrolink train is leaving the station that way they don’t tie up traffic on both the rail line and on the local road that goes through the station.
As PTC (glacially) matures this will eventually become the standard around the country.
I believe you mean San Juan Capistrano rather than San Luis Obispo. SLO is not on any Metrolink route.
Definitely.