OREANDA-NEWS. June 10, 2011. The International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) is organized by railway organizations in more than 40 countries and this year took place on 9 June, reported the press-centre of RZD.   

In order to reduce accidents involving rail and road transport, many countries worldwide are therefore undertaking major efforts to eliminate the intersection of roads and railways on the same level, but this entails huge costs and long timeframes. Russia’s rail network, for instance, has over 11,000 such level crossings. Russian Railways therefore plans to build 65 overpasses between 2011-2015, a major increase on the 23 built between 2006-2010. Funding for the construction will be assigned from Russia’s federal budget.

Under these conditions, the most important immediate measure to improve safety at level crossings is educational work to make drivers and pedestrians more aware of the dangers involved.

Countries participating in this year’s ILCAD will be holding a variety of activities and events, including interviews, the distribution of leaflets at level crossings and in schools and driving schools and the displaying of posters.

The International Level Crossing Awareness Day took place for the first time on 25 June 2009 and was established at the initiative of the International Union of Railways (UIC), the European Level Crossing Forum (ELCF), the Community of European Railway Companies (CER), the European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM) and the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC).