Google Maps will highlight rail crossings

WASHINGTON — Google has agreed to expand Google Maps data to include the locations of the nation's nearly 250,000 grade-level railroad crossings, the Federal Railroad Administration said Monday.

Federal regulators have made similar requests of MapQuest, TomTom, Garmin and Apple. They want to reduce the number of car and truck grade-crossing deaths each year by having GPS mapping software alert drivers to the crossings' locations.

"We have heard positive signals from them but they have not said yes,'' Matthew Lehner, spokesman for the federal agency said Monday. "Google is the first to say yes.''

Google "has not given us a timeline, but they have said it's a priority,'' he said.

The FRA estimates about 270 people died in highway-rail grade crossing collisions in 2014, an increase over the previous year for the first time this decade.

Among the most publicized recent fatalities was a Feb. 3 Metro-North accident in Valhalla, N.Y., that killed the motorist and five train passengers. The accident occurred when a commuter train struck a Mercedes-Benz SUV stopped on the tracks. The impact caused the electrified third rail to detach, pierce the SUV and enter the front car of the train in two locations.

Acting FRA Administrator Sarah Feinberg, a former Facebook executive, undertook the mapping initiative as part of her effort to take a fresh look at the rising fatalities, Lehner said.

"We know more and more drivers today use map applications on smartphones to guide them to their destinations,'' Feinberg said in a letter to Google. "When drivers are alerted or reminded that there is a rail crossing ahead, they may be more likely to remain alert, take greater caution and obey the signal crossings.''

Grade-crossing safety also has become a priority in Congress.

A passenger rail reauthorization bill passed by the House in March would make commuter railroads eligible for federal loans from the $35 billion Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program to make safety improvements at grade crossings. The legislation requires each state to develop a plan for improving safety at grade crossings.

Similar grade-crossing measures are in a Senate bill that cleared the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee last week.