A London downtown-area railway crossing ranked by one expert as one of the city’s most dangerous will be upgraded.

The crossing at Piccadilly and St. George streets will be outfitted with a gate sometime this year, the Canadian Pacific Railway confirmed.

Critics have long blasted the crossing — equipped with signal lights, a warning bell and marked by crossbuck signs — for not having a gate, despite being in a residential area just one block from busy Richmond Row.

Neighbours say it’s not uncommon to see drivers racing across the tracks to beat oncoming trains, often driving down from Richmond Street, where there are barriers at the crossing.

The Piccadilly-St. George crossing was thrust under the spotlight last month after a 20-year-old man was injured when his car collided with a freight train.

Police charged the driver, whom they said was lucky to be alive, with disobeying a railway crossing, a Highway Traffic Act offence that carries a $95 fine.

But the decision to upgrade the crossing didn’t have anything to do with the May 30 crash, according to the Canadian Pacific Railway.

“The crossing upgrades at Piccadilly were part of our 2015 plan before the incident,” the CPR’s Salem Woodrow said in an e-mail.

No other rail crossings in London are scheduled to be upgraded, Woodrow added.

Rail safety expert Richard Plokhaar, who has analyzed and rated the safety of the 60 crossings in London, rated the Piccadilly-St. George crossing, along with six others in London, as “high risk.”

Besides criticizing the crossing for not having a gate, Plokhaar also singled it out for its poor design. The steep slopes leading up the tracks leaves low-bottomed vehicles at risk of getting stuck, the London man has said.

dale.carruthers@sunmedia.ca

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