Denver Regional Transportation District Light-Rail Maintenance Facility
This spring amidst snowy conditions, John Leary and I toured the Denver
Light-Rail Shop kindly hosted by the maintenance supervisor, Mr. Lou Cripps. Our goal in
touring the facility was to gain a clearer understanding of maintenance operations and talk
about how vehicles can be designed to improve upon passenger safety should vehicles be involved
in accidents with automobiles or pedestrians. The Denver passenger rail system, which is continuing
to expand rapidly, is well operated and is very popular with the public.
As a member of the ASME Standards Committee on light-rail structural design and safety, we
are working to develop industry standards that will improve safety for rail passengers,
pedestrians and automobile passengers should vehicles accidentally collide at crossings or near
roadways.
The design of the Denver cars includes a snow plow mounted underneath the
car ends that serves to not only plow snow, but help protect pedestrians by blocking
them from becoming entrapped underneath the vehicle in the very unlikely event a
pedestrian is accidentally struck. This and other features including less intrusive couplers exposed
at the front of vehicles and better structural design to improve rail-car passenger safety
in the event light-rail vehicles collide, are all being considered as part of the ASME Standard.
To learn more, contact us at
SC Engineering
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