Railroad freight shipping is one of America's most efficient ways to transport goods across the country. Despite the industry's efforts to highlight the success of its safety initiatives which have made rail one of the safest options to ship freight, accidents at rail-highway at-grade crossings continue to grab the attention of the public, and help form their opinion of the rail ind

ustry. While grade collision rates continue to trend downward, continued improvement in grade crossing safety must be implemented.  Although at face value, data may not seem like an obvious component to improving grade crossing safety, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and railroads think otherwise.

To this end, FRA published a rule on January 6, 2015 requiring railroads to submit more detailed information on their crossings, and to keep this information updated on a regular basis. Maintaining an accurate inventory provides a tool for railroads and transportation agencies to successfully manage the wide array of grade crossing information, and analyze options for improving public safety and awareness. By implementing new inventory technology and improving grade crossing inventory records' accuracy, the federal database of over 200,000 grade crossings in the United States can create a solid foundation for dramatically improving grade crossing safety.