Crossings / Alabama / Birmingham
Birmingham
Alabama.
The federal crossing inventory lists 139 public at-grade railroad crossings in Birmingham, AL, operated by 5 railroads. 55 of them carry more than one track.
Who runs the track
Norfolk Southern Railway Company operates 53 of the crossings here, 38% of the total, ahead of CSX Transportation at 33.
Train services crossing these streets: freight (133) and intercity (20).
| Railroad | Crossings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Norfolk Southern Railway Company | 53 | 38% |
| CSX Transportation | 33 | 24% |
| Alabama & Tennessee River Railway LLC | 20 | 14% |
| BNSF Railway Company | 20 | 14% |
| Birmingham Terminal Railway LLC | 12 | 9% |
How much traffic is reported
The busiest crossing at 24th St Sw on Norfolk Southern Railway Company is credited with 31 train movements a day; the middle of the range across all 139 is 2. These are counts the operating railroad reported to the FRA, not measurements, and a crossing's figure can be several years old.
The highest timetable speed recorded at any crossing here is 79 mph.
Warning devices
53 of the 139 crossings carry gates and 35 have flashing lights without gates. 51 (37%) have neither, which means crossbucks, a stop sign, or no marking the inventory records at all. The inventory describes equipment, not how a crossing performs.
Horns and quiet zones
No crossing here is recorded under a whistle ban, so trains sound the standard horn pattern on approach.
Incident history
Form 57 records 68 reported incidents at these crossings since 2016, involving 15 deaths and 34 injuries. Incident counts follow traffic and exposure as much as anything about a crossing itself.
- Thirty-First Street — 10 reported incidents
- 24th St Sw — 7 reported incidents
- 17th St Sw — 6 reported incidents
- Fifteenth Place Sw — 5 reported incidents
- Jefferson Ave — 4 reported incidents
What this page is not
This is a summary of a federal inventory, not a measurement and not a rating. RailContext does not score crossings, streets or towns, and nothing here says a crossing is safe or unsafe, or that a neighbourhood is quiet or loud. Train counts are estimates the operating railroad filed, sometimes years ago, and a quiet zone does not guarantee silence.
To see the individual crossings nearest one address rather than a whole city, use the address check.
Other Alabama cities on the inventory
- Montgomery 88 crossings
- Mobile 82 crossings
- Tuscaloosa 68 crossings
- Talladega 56 crossings
- Selma 55 crossings
- Dothan 51 crossings
- Huntsville 46 crossings
- Bessemer 44 crossings