Transcript
[video description: We begin on a black screen with the video title in large white font.]
[text: "Grade crossings"]
[video: Our host, a man in a blue jacket, stands in front of a rural rail crossing. He addresses the camera directly.]
Narrator: There are more than forty-three thousand kilometres of railway track in Canada—and some twenty-three thousand crossings like this one.
[video: A mostly white screen. We get a birds-eye perspective of a road, cutting across the blank white space from the bottom-right to upper-left corner of the screen. Bisecting the road are railway tracks. A blue car drives north along the road toward the rail crossing; at the same time, a freight train travels right to left.]
[video: To the right of car are several trees along with a small shed very close to the corner where the road and tracks meet. Overlaying the bottom-right quadrant of the intersection is a red triangle, indicating the area that should be clear for a driver to be able to spot an oncoming train. Within this triangle, the trees and shed are ringed by a pulsating circle, indicated that they are contributing to an obstructed sightline.]
[text: "Obstructed sightline"]
Narrator (voice-over): Transport Canada has introduced new Grade Crossings Regulations to help railway companies...
[video: We go picture-in-picture, with the birds-eye perspective shrinking and moving to the bottom right corner of the screen.]
[video: In the rest of the frame we now get the same animation but from the driver’s perspective, looking out to the right of the car as it approaches the rail crossing. We see only trees and the shed; the oncoming train does not come into view until we are just about to cross the tracks.]
Narrator (voice-over): ...road authorities, municipalities and private individuals increase safety at grade crossings.
[video: We go back to the original bird’s-eye perspective of the road, the tracks and the red triangle. This time, most of the trees have been removed from within the triangle’s area, providing clearer sightlines.]
[video: The small shed near the corner of the intersection remains in the triangle, though; it alone is ringed by the pulsating circle, indicated that the sightline continues to be obstructed because of its location.]
[text: "Obstructed sightline"]
Narrator (voice-over): The new regulations emphasize the importance of drivers being able to see a train when approaching a crossing.
[video: The picture-in-picture treatment returns, with the bird’s-eye perspective again shrinking and moving to the bottom-right corner of the screen.]
[video: As before, we see the same animation play out from the driver’s perspective, looking out the right side of the car as it approaches the crossing. This time, without all the trees, the train is initially much more visible. Yet it becomes fully obscured as it passes behind the shed and does not come back into view until just before we reach the crossing.]
Narrator (voice-over): Having clear sightlines is a first defense to avoiding collisions between drivers and trains. A safe crossing is a visible crossing.
[video: We go back to the original bird’s-eye perspective of the animation. In this version, the red triangle in the bottom-right quadrant of the intersection is completely free of any objects: there are no trees at all and the shed is gone, too.]
[text: "Clear sightline"]
Narrator (voice-over): The new regulations reflect years of stakeholder collaboration…
[video: Back to the picture-in-picture format. Again, the birds-eye perspective moves to the bottom-right corner of the screen and in the rest of the frame we see the animation play out from the driver’s perspective.]
[video: With no trees and no shed blocking the sightlines, we can now see see the train approaching from the right at all times — and the car is able to stop well before it reaches the rail crossing.]
Narrator (voice-over): …in developing best engineering practices and technical standards for safety at grade crossings.
[video: A Transport Canada inspector walks along some railroad tracks with a CN railway employee. Both are wearing safety vests and hardhats.]
[video: The inspector and railway employee are kneeling, using a measuring tape to check the width of the tracks.]
[video: Medium shot of the inspector and railway employee standing in front of flashing rail-crossing lights, gesturing toward something offscreen to the right.]
Narrator (voice-over): Transport Canada inspectors perform inspections of crossings across the country to verify compliance with the Railway Safety Act and its regulations, rules and standards.
[video: Back to the host standing in front of the rural rail crossing.]
Narrator: If you own a private crossing, farm crossing, or land within a sightline area, you may have a role to play under the Railway Safety Act.
[video: On a black screen, each letter of the URL appears in large white font, one at a time, as though being entered on a keyboard.]
[text: "tc.gc.ca"]
Narrator (voice-over): Visit tc.gc.ca to find out how the Grade Crossings Regulations may apply to you.
[video: Screen capture of the French version of the Transport Canada website. The mouse hovers over some of the navigation options before clicking on on “Sécurité ferroviaire”, which brings up the corresponding page on rail safety. It then clicks on “Un apercu du Règlement sur les passage à niveau du Canada”, bringing up the page about the Grade Crossing Regulations.]
Narrator (voice-over): Municipalities can also find information on our website. Together, we can improve safety at grade crossings, thereby saving lives and preventing injuries and derailments.
[video: Back to the host standing in front of the rural rail crossing.]
Narrator: Sightlines are just one of the changes in the new Grade Crossings Regulations. The new regulations clarify roles and responsibilities and allow for more collaboration and information sharing. By working together, Transport Canada, railway companies and road authorities are addressing safety at grade crossings across Canada.
[video: Black screen with URL and Government of Canada wordmark.]
[text: "tc.gc.ca"]
Download video:
- Rail Grade Crossing (.mp4, 21.1 MB)