2004 – March – Earl – Remote Level Crossing Monitoring

Cameron Earl BE Elec (Honours), GradIEAust Works Infrastructure Remote Monitoring technology has become commercially viable to the Victorian rail industry over the past 10 years, due to the availability of small, cost effective industrial microprocessors, coupled with the expansion of mobile phone coverage in country areas. Isolated locations such as active level crossings now have a reliable, longer-range medium that allows the transmission of timely and useful quantities of data. The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) has approved a project for the remote monitoring of all 132 level crossings on the ARTC Victorian Standard Gauge Rail Network. This is based on the desire to detect crossing faults, and to implement the National Code of Practice (NCOP) for inspection frequencies. Monitoring equipment will be installed at each level crossing location, which would monitor the crossing control circuits.The monitoring system will be designed to allow for future expansion, to enable data collection from other signalling infrastructure if required. This also ties in with the possibility of satellite technology becoming a viable medium for the improved control of rail traffic, which would rationalise the present signalling system.