This spring at both Paris-Roubaix and the Under-23 Tour of Flanders, riders illegally crossed railway tracks after the level crossing barriers had closed.
A serious catastrophe was only narrowly averted in both cases, with riders continuing to stream across the level crossings just seconds before trains passed through. The incident was widely reported, and the riders’ behaviour set a very bad example. Level crossings represent a huge risk for all road users, with one person a day killed on Europe’s 114,000 level crossings, some of them on bikes.
Although againstthe law, the loss of seconds – even minutes - waiting at a closed level crossing during in a race is often enough for riders, in the heat of the moment, to take such a significant risk. Disqualification from the race has previously been employed, but in the case of this year’s edition of Paris-Roubaix, so many riders crossed that the commissaires considered it impossible to determine everyone who had crossed.
With the 2015 Tour de France crossing Belgium on the third and fourth stages, the Belgian railway company Infrabel, realised it needed to find a solution and prevent possible future tragedies.
Working with leading Belgian riders, Infrabel produced a TV spot, launched on the first day of the Tour’s passage, campaigning for people to stop at the barriers, rather than ride – or drive – around them. The video films professionals such as Tom Boonen, Sven Nys and Greg Van Avermaet declaring: “I stop at closed railway crossings” and “You too, no?”
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In 2012 Infrabel had gone one step further: they even retimed some services to ensure that the Tour could pass through without interruption.
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Coordinating the movement of trains to accommodate races is difficult and only possible for the biggest races. With speeds of races often varying considerably and difficult to forecast in advance, working out when the riders are approaching the crossing and relaying that information to the rail network operators isn’t straightforward, but Infrabel have shown that it can be done.
Nevertheless, this type of operation remains an exception. The basic rule, for all cyclists, professionals, regular or occasional, is clear: crossing railway lines when the barriers are down is not only illegal, it is also extremely dangerous, as statistiques prove.