EATON – Preble County Commissioners Adam Craft and David Haber met with Jeremy Hiebert Director of Business Development for TRAINFO, virtually, during the board’s Wednesday, Aug. 23, regular meeting, to discuss TRAINFO’s products for advance notification when trains are blocking rail crossings in the county.
TRAINFO is a Canadian company which focuses on eliminating traffic delays and accidents at rail crossings using technology. The company’s website notes, “TRAINFO’s patented, machine-learning algorithms, proprietary sensors, and integration of data from across the rail network allows us to predict rail crossing blockages up to 10 minutes before a train arrives. We are the only company that delivers this information into your advanced traffic management system, roadside signs, and emergency dispatch software.”
The Preble County project has bounced around a little bit and that’s why we all took the time today to kind of reset and I wanted to get a sense of what your expectations and thoughts were. My goal today is to reexamine the proposal that I think was shared with you a number of months ago, do some updates on where our company is at make sure you truly understand what we can do, and really, I guess the bigger question is, to make sure we are aligned,” Hiebert said.
TRAINFO creates dynamic signs which notify the public in real time of train activity, stoppage, etc. on crossings. “So if you have a big problem with trains stopping, switching all that non-continuous movement, with our solutions, we are able to actually determine that that is happening,” he said.
“Information that was shared with me by my colleagues here at TRAINFO was that you had four primary rail crossings that were causing you issues in the county. And the goal was to get notification of when is this crossing blocked, and blocked continuously for hours. Then, in a perfect world, can we put some sensors ahead of it and then behind it so we can get some predictive information so that with the trains continuously going through the county then we can get advance notification.
“Hiebert continued, “That’s where this design started. And then the bigger question maybe was, well, what are you doing with this information? And from what I received from my colleagues, here was the goal — or two goals. One, definitely make this information up there available to emergency responders. And that can be done a variety of ways. Normally, this information is sent to a dispatch center, or possibly to an app that maybe we see a lot of these sorts of responders have — a pre-planning or an app that they use right ahead of the call, but we can definitely send the data there. But then the second goal was the community. And from the information that was shared with me that was one of the keys that we wanted to address.
“We knew save more lives, which absolutely very important out there, first responders. But the community also has a concern, you know, when they’re driving to work, they want to know if these crossings are blocked,” he said.
Officials discussed the crossings, and questioned whether there were advance warning signs which could be erected to let drivers know in advance of getting to areas where they are unable to turn around that a crossing is blocked, and specifics of what might be needed for construction, technology, etc.
Funding for any signage project was also discussed, with commissioners asking for TRAINFO to provide information on cost estimates.
“We have been awarded some money well, not really awarded —we kind of negotiated money with the railroad and we’re going to have some money left over after our road improvement projects. I’m not exactly sure what the dollar amount is,” Craft said.
Commissioners and Sheriff Simpson planned to discuss the TRAINFO information with County Engineer Kyle Cross.
Commissioners and Simpson first met with TRAINFO to discuss the company’s services in late September 2022. At that time, the company said its services would cost the county an estimated $15,000 a year for a license to operate each of the recommended crossings, with each box costing an additional $6,000 each. Commissioners and Sheriff Simpson attended an unveiling of a TRAINFO operating system in New Haven, Indiana when it was installed last year to gather more information as well.
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
