National Railway Network

Description

With 48,000 kilometres of track and over 23,000 grade crossings, Canada has one of the largest rail networks in the world. Transport Canada regulations, standards and programs work help make our railway system safe, secure, accessible, competitive and more environmentally responsible.

Transport Canada is primarily responsible for enforcing rail safety regulation (pri​marily the Canadian Railway Safety Act) and conducting research and development in support of improved railroad safety. The Grade Crossings Regulations (GCR) and the Grade Crossings Standards (GCS) will improve safety at these federally regulated grade crossings.

The National Railway Network (NRWN) product is distributed in the form of eleven provincial or territorial datasets and consists of one linear feature (Track), four punctual features (Junction, Crossing, Marker Post, and Station), and one linear or punctual feature (Structure) with which is associated a series of descriptive attributes such as, among others: Track Classification, Track Name, Track Operator, Track User, Gauge, Number of Tracks, Electrification, Design Speeds, Subdivision Name; Junction Type; Level of Crossing, Crossing Type, Warning System, Transport Canada Identifier; Station Name, Station Type, Station User, Number of platforms; Structure Type.

Originator

1. Canada Open Data

2. Transport Canada – Rail Safety Integrated Gateway (RSIG) Database

Use Cases

1. As a Rail Inspector I want to study grade crossings with multiple incidents so that safety issues can be identified.

Source(s)

Remarks

1. The most appropriate dataset to use for EGIS would be from WMS web service as it does not require periodic updates.

2. Avoid using National Railway Network dataset from TC as they are obsolete.

3. Grade crossing from RSIG only contains crossing with TC Identifier, it is incomplete as does not have bridges and private crossing etc. The accuracy of crossing location is also inconsistent and unreliable.

4. Unlike TSB Rail Incidents, Crossing Collision only contains incident at crossings with TC ID. It is an aggregate of TSB incidents maintained in the RSIG Database at Rail Safety.

5. EGIS Data Folder: \\ncras382\Application Source Files\EGIS\Smartmap Files\

Process for EGIS integration

Display Optimization:

1. Generalized/weeded Main Tracks are displayed at smaller scale to provide users with a general overview. With scale transition, original tracks are displayed at large scale thus improving display performance.

2. Sampled/thinned Grade Crossings (done with common data sampling technique) are displayed at small and medium scale. With scale transition, original grade crossings are displayed at larger scale, thus improve display performance.

Grade Crossing - SHP & CSV Merge:

1. In FME, use the Feature Merger transformer to join Open Data SHP file with RSIG CSV file using TCCrossingID/TC Identifier as primary key.

2. Additional fields to include from RSIG: Freight Speed, Protection Type, Track Class, # of Lane, # of Tracks, Highway Name, Road Name and Road Authority, All Time # of Crossing Accidents.

3. Output to KML, SHP or GDB as required.

4. Import into EGIS

RSIG Crossing Collision - CSV File Transformation:

1. In FME, using the Statistic Calculator, an aggregate of the Incidents, Fatalities and Injuries grouped by RSIG TC ID is extracted.

2. Use the Feature Merger transformer to join the output with Open Data Grade Crossing SHP file using RSIG Location ID/TC Identifier as primary key.

3. Additional fields to include from Open Data: Railway Co, Subdivision, Mile and Province.

4. Tranform the Lat/Long to point.

5. Output to KML, SHP or GDB as required

6. Import into EGIS

TC Smart Maps:

1. Not all GIS applications can consume KML file directly due to its unique data structures such as networklinks, folders, models etc.

2. Please contact Lawrence Chong, Digital Services Directorate for TC Smart Maps KML dataset and format translation.

3. TC Smart Maps KML link: \\tc.gc.ca\tcgis\GISData\Google Mashup\Surface Engineering-Rail Data\National_Rail_Data.kml

Customization:

1. Schema transformation: As required

2. Denormalization: It is recommended to perform minimal generalization on NRWN tracks, yards and spurs to improve display performance.

3. Value coding: Not required

4. Attribute renaming: As required to improve readability

5. Attribute removal: It is highly recommended as some fields are unnecessary, this will also reduce file size and improve performance

6. Geoenrichment: Feature symbolization is strongly recommended to improve visualization.
   -Symbolize Railway Tracks/Yards/Spurs by Railway Co.
   -Symbolize Grade Crossing by Protection type.
   -Symbolize Crossing Collision by # of accidents.

7. Format translation: As needed

8. Language translation: French version available for NRWN.