Safety audits of Finnish level crossings have been carried out for 10 years at an average pace of 400 level crossings per year. Altogether 3 863 level crossings have been audited -more than 95% of all level crossings on the state railways. The objective of the audits is to improve safety at level crossings so that vigilant and motivated road users can cross the railway safely. The audits include systematic and extensive at-site recording of the physical characteristics of the level crossing, description of traffic on the railway and the road, a number of photographs, and recently also video clips. The main output from the audits consists of recommendations for safety measures. The data collected can also be used for statistical analysis, such as calculation of the safety index for individual level crossings. A PC application for viewing the data, photos and video clips of individual level crossings is a handy tool for those responsible for level crossing management.

This paper describes the Dihub model and its piloting in Helsinki. Dihub (Digital Innovation Hub for Cloud-based Services) is an EU-funded project that aims at the promotion and creation of cloud-based knowledge and innovations in Europe through the construction of an innovation hub platform, a study path and the related processes. These are tested in several pilot rounds during two academic years in five European countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland and Portugal. The educational partners involved are institutions from both vocational and higher education. The stakeholders involved in the Dihub model are business owners and experts in companies using cloud services, experts from cloud technology providers, educators and students.

A method for determining whether the safety of a railway–road grade crossing is reasonable was assessed by examining the results of its application to 360 Finnish grade crossings. Safety was considered reasonable if the conditions at the grade crossing were such that road users have available all the information necessary for safe crossing. At passive grade crossings, this condition is usually met when a road vehicle can cross the railway in less time than it takes for a train to arrive at the crossing from the farthest point at which the road user can see it. In the application of the method, crossing times for a car, a truck, and a trailer truck were calculated with an advanced vehicle-movement simulation model, taking into account the gradient of the road. These times were frequently too short. In such cases, measures for quick implementation were suggested. Most frequently these measures concerned clearing of sight-restricting vegetation, improving the vertical profile of the road, banning long vehicles from using the grade crossing, and reducing the speed limit of trains. Vehicle type-specific bans and reduced speed limits can usually be removed later if the crossing is equipped with barriers.