advertisement

---

On Friday, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued the “FRA Approach to Managing Gap Safety,” a document designed to help transit agencies reduce accidents caused by the gap between the edge of a station platform and threshold of a passenger-train door.

The most effective way to manage gap safety is to adopt a comprehensive program to manage gap hazards, and establish and maintain uniform gap and boarding conditions, FRA says.  

According to the report, transit agencies should:
• establish gap standards for all high-level platforms that define the size of the gap;
• seek opportunities to reduce the gap;
• use a comprehensive hazard analysis as the core of the hazard management process;
• set maintenance procedures to service station platforms, track and rolling stock — all of which can directly affect the gap;
• periodically inspect the gap; and
• mitigate hazards through the use of hardware and technology, policies and procedures, employee training, passenger outreach and passenger behavior.