Overview & Methods

The NLXP presents a national dataset of factual, observable data on level crossing occurrences and key characteristics for use by an authorised level crossing management stakeholder community within Australia.

The type of data available within the NLXP dataset includes:

The NLXP does not contain data regarding:

• Outcomes of Australian Level Crossing Assessment Model (ALCAM) assessments or other safety or risk assessment outcomes.
• Level crossing asset condition data.

The NLXP incorporates data from:

• Occurrence data reported to the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) under s.121 of the Rail Safety National Law (RSNL).
• Network and railway operations data reported to ONRSR under s.120(3) of the RSNL (level crossing location and responsible organisation(s) data).
• A subset of level crossing characteristic data captured and/or managed by jurisdictional transport agencies for the purpose of application of the Australian Level Crossing Assessment Model (ALCAM).

Content of the NLXP dataset is provided having considered s.244 of the RNSL (confidentiality of information) and in keeping with data sharing arrangements and agreements established with jurisdictional transport agencies.

Identification and location information for each level crossing includes: ALCAM ID; State/Territory; Crossing name; Road name; Suburb/town; Rail network; Road type; and geospatial location.

The ALCAM ID is used as the primary reference for a crossing.  Within the NLXP the ALCAM ID is prefixed with the relevant jurisdiction, e.g. SA-123 is the South Australian level crossing with ALCAM ID of 123.

Other information provided for each crossing includes crossing type (road or pedestrian) and operational status, road type (public or private), and level crossing protection type (active or passive traffic control devices).

Rail transport operators (rail infrastructure managers and rolling stock operators) and road managers for each crossing are identified in the dataset and are associated with level crossing occurrences.

Otherwise, where details of a level crossing site are presented, reference to the responsible rail infrastructure(s) and road manager(s) is a reference to current responsible organisations.

This data is based on the initial written advice of a rail safety notifiable occurrence that a rail transport operator submits to ONRSR in accordance with section 121 of the Rail Safety National Law (RSNL). Rail Safety National Law (South Australia) Act 2012 | South Australian Legislation.

The NLXP includes data for notifiable occurrences at level crossings associated with:

• Collision with vehicle.
• Collision with person.
• Near hits with vehicle.
• Near hits with person.
• Wrong side failures.

The dataset contains occurrences dating from 1 July 2014 through to the present.

Depending upon the nature of any occurrence, the total time required for the occurrence to be reported to ONRSR and for ONRSR to then review and validate can be up to 14 days. ONRSR will make occurrence data available to the NLXP once this processing is complete. Updates of newly available occurrences will be made daily.

All occurrence records available in the NLXP have been through a process that redacts personally identifiable information from the occurrence description.

Occurrence data collected by former state regulators and used within the NLXP was collected under different legislative regimes. A review of this data has been undertaken to ensure comparability with ONRSR collected data. This applies to the data outlined below:

• Western Australia (WA) – level crossing occurrence data from 1 July 2014 to 1 November 2015 was collected by the WA Department of Transport, Office of Rail Safety.
• Queensland (Qld.) – level crossing occurrence data from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2017 was collected by the Qld. Department of Transport and Main Roads.

Victoria (Vic.) – level crossing occurrence data from 1 July 2014 to 1 December 2019 was collected by Transport Safety Victoria for the Melbourne metropolitan tram network and for tourist and heritage operators that transitioned under ONRSR’s regulatory oversight on 2 December 2019.

Traffic use of level crossings is provided as Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) for road traffic and as a Daily Train Volume for rail traffic, which is an average daily train volume.   

The AADT is only provided for each road crossing where this value has been confirmed source (and is made available as part of the LXM/ALCAM dataset).  Where the AADT has not been measured or confirmed it will show as a zero.

The set of level crossing site environment flags are provided to inform of specific level crossing characteristics that present potential hazards for the safe use of level crossings by road users. These flags identify the presence of:

• Multiple railway tracks at the crossing.
• Higher speed trains.
• Potential queuing of road traffic across the crossing.
• Short stacking possibility, principally due to the close proximity of other road intersections.
• Potential sun glare impacting sighting of the crossing or approaching trains
• Road humps, dips or rough surface.

A measure of the severity or significance of these characteristics at each crossing is not provided.

While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure the quality of occurrence data within scope of the NLXP, ONRSR cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of information provided by third parties.

ONRSR has attempted to remove all the personal information provided by rail transport operators within occurrence descriptions. Should ONRSR be made aware of any remnant personal information, it will promptly redact this material.

Occurrences that have involved potential self-harm are included in the NLXP data.  However, the detailed description of these occurrences is not included in the NLXP occurrence data.

Occurrences reported to have taken place at level crossings outside the scope of the NLXP or with an unknown level crossing ID, are excluded.

Level crossing characteristics sourced from the ALCAM LXM dataset represent a snapshot of each level crossing in time.  This information is captured and updated as part of, and is currently reliant on, each jurisdiction’s level crossing survey activity.

A guide to the date that this information was last updated is provided in the NLXP LX Register data, which is to enable users to exercise their own judgement when deriving insights from the available data.

Changes to level crossing characteristics over time are not reliably available within the current NLXP data sources.  While information on historical changes to crossings is included in the NLXP, it is an area that is under development.  The current information should be used with caution if exploring relationships between occurrence history and level crossing characteristics, such as primary control type or rail and road traffic data, which may have changed over time.

The NLXP data content is presented to users in the following forms:

• Summary statistical information – presenting an overview of crossings and occurrence counts.
• Occurrence information – presenting a detailed data set of level crossing occurrences and a set of summary reports that provide time series and organisational visualisation of the data.
• Site level insights – presenting a detailed level crossing register and a set of summary reports that provide occurrence information in context to sites and site characteristics, including individual site profiles.
• Benchmarking summaries – presenting visualisations that represent the overall Australian level crossing safety picture.
• Geospatial interface – presenting elements of the NLXP data set through interactive map interface.

Due to potential errors in source data, issues of consistency are relevant both within the NLXP reports and between NLXP reports and other information products.

The statistics in the NLXP may differ to other sources that use the same data and coding specifications. This will be due in part to the data collection and preparation methods used to generate the visualisations in the NLXP, which included identification and correction of errors in historical occurrence data.

The statistics presented in the NLXP are subject to review and amendment as more information becomes available through investigation or inquiry, or as source data managers refine systems for data capture and validation. This may result in variations between historical and future versions of the NLXP.