Renovation of 300 level crossings completes in 2021

Level crossing safety will be improved in 300 places in Finland when the ongoing renovation work will be completed in 2021, said a press release issued by the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency a press release on Thursday.

The level crossing programme launched by the Ministry of Transport and Communications in 2018 initially planned to renovate 65 level crossings, but the agency on International Level Crossing Awareness Day said the number was increased to 300.

According to the current plan, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency will remove 177 level crossings and improve 129 level crossings under the programme.

“Such a great result was achieved with our own and regional planning. As an example, there was a section of road with four level crossings. After constructing detours, we have been able to remove three of them and improve the safety of the remaining level crossing,” said Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency’s Traffic Safety Specialist Jarmo Koistinen.

Although the current work is significantly improving the situation, there are still 2,550 level crossings in Finland after the programme ends.

“There is still plenty of work to be done for many years, and at the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, we are committed to improving traffic safety in this area,” Koistinen added.

In the upcoming years, all investment and maintenance projects will be reflected in the decline of the number of accidents.

“As the number of level crossings has been reduced, the number of accidents has also decreased,” Koistinen said.

According to the agency, at least 28 people have been killed in level-crossing accidents in the country since 2013 to September 2019 and all of them took place at crossings where there was no signal light or warning for vehicles about train movement.

Finland has 2,800 level crossings. But over 2,000 of them have no alert systems.