Infrastructure Manager ProRail and the Dutch Railways offer a ten-minute-service on the railway section between the Dutch cities of Utrecht and Eindhoven during peak hours from 31 August till 6 September 2009. This means that a total of six intercity trains, six sprinters and two freight trains will run every hour in each direction. ProRail and the Dutch Railways are conducting this one-week pilot aiming to make public transport more attractive to passengers. A disadvantage is that level-crossings will be closed longer and more often.

That can be dangerous, given the risk that road users will take ‘undesired initiatives’ when level-crossings remain closed too long. It is therefore important for ProRail to exactly know how long the level-crossings are closed every day. ProRail therefore asked Strukton Systems to monitor the closing times of the individual level-crossing barriers. Strukton Systems developed a new application of the POSS monitoring system to do so.

Extension
Strukton Systems installed micro POSS units in the control panels of the level-crossings. Micro POSS units are panels with electronics that use one switch to measure when the barriers are closed. This signal is wirelessly transferred to a server that is connected to the POSS website. ProRail is therefore able to see the number of movements and closing times of all individual barriers through the internet, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. All 25 (automatic) half-barrier level crossing along the section are now being monitored.

Further applications
This POSS application will remain operational also after the pilot and there are several possibilities to develop further applications. POSS can for example capture more contacts and e.g. measure which rail segment causes barriers to be closed. The door to further applications is wide open.