Yikes! Putting a rail line across an active runway strikes me as just asking for a disaster. Proof-positive that common sense isn't always common.
A few thoughts....
First and foremost, the only way this could ever work would be at a controlled airport, meaning there is indeed a control tower open and operating 24-7. That control tower would need control of the railway signals. Even then, it is still a terribly stupid idea IMHO.
Unfortunately, the public seems to assume that ALL airports have control towers. This is not true at all. In fact, in the US, the vast majority of airports do not have sufficient traffic to justify a control tower and are "uncontrolled." This does not mean "out-of-control." Pilots use a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency to self-announce, and there are standard traffic pattern procedures that are followed when there is no tower. Having a rail line cross an "uncontrolled" runway, when there is no coordination between air traffic and rail traffic would almost certainly result in an accident sooner rather than later.
When pilots are approaching a runway, their focus is on that runway, specifically, the touch-down zone....as well as the airspace around them. They are not looking at the runway environs for objects that would not normally concern them, such as an approaching train.
While an aircraft can abort a takeoff or a landing, there is a point in time where they are committed. The absolute last thing they need during this time is another transportation vehicle making a runway incursion, that also cannot stop.
And then there are night operations..... The middle of a freight train is dark at night. When a pilot looks at a typical runway on approach, all he/she can see are the runway edge lights and blackness in the middle. That's it. A train would be an invisible wall until the aircraft's on-board landing lights pick it up. At that point, the pilot might just as well shut them off. They just illuminate the spot where he's going to die.
Genius has it's limits, but stupidity has no bounds!
/Kevin Madore
