MBTA, Keolis Boost Safety at Wilmington Crossing

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and its Commuter Rail operator Keolis have taken additional steps to improve safety at a Wilmington, Mass., highway/rail grade crossing, following a Jan. 21 accident.

A 68-year-old Wilmington woman was killed when her car collided with an MBTA Commuter Rail train at the Middlesex Avenue crossing near the North Wilmington station, according to WCVB 5, an ABC affiliate in Boston. MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said a Keolis signal maintainer “was performing regularly scheduled testing of the railroad crossing’s safety system less than an hour before the collision,” the television station reported. “According to Poftak, the MBTA’s preliminary finding was that the safety system was not returned to its normal operating mode following the testing. This failure resulted in the train crossing gates not coming down in a timely manner as the train approached Middlesex Avenue.”

Human Element Focus

“With multiple tests confirming that all elements of the crossing’s infrastructure have continued to perform as designed, MBTA and Keolis are focused on the human element of federally mandated railroad crossing testing,” the transit agency said on Feb. 22.

“I’d like to assure the community that the protection system at the Middlesex Avenue railroad crossing is safe and fully operational,” Poftak said. “On top of our regular maintenance, inspection and testing procedures, additional rules and instructions for Commuter Rail personnel have been introduced to provide another layer of safety-related enhancements.”

MBTA and Keolis have initiated the following measures:
• “After the testing is completed, the Commuter Rail dispatchers must request, and receive, affirmation from the signal maintainer that the protection system is enabled.
• “Following the step mentioned previously, the signal maintainer must remain on-site until the next train passes to ensure the crossing’s protection system is fully operational and, if necessary, be prepared to manually control the protection system if the system does not perform as expected.
• “New signage will be installed on the inside of each signal bungalow door to serve as a visual reminder to Keolis personnel to ensure that the crossing equipment has been fully and properly returned to service.”

According to MBTA, Keolis has already retrained all of its signal maintainers on the procedures that must be followed before, during and after the process of performing regular testing of the railroad crossing’s protection system.

“Safety for our people, our passengers and the communities that depend on commuter rail service is our first priority at Keolis,” Keolis Boston CEO and General Manager Abdellah Chajai said. “We will continue to work with the MBTA and our crews to ensure safe operations at this location and across the network.”