Rail & Highway Milepost Markers

As a result of their investigation into a railway collision, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a report in 2001 that identified certain safety issues relating to this event. One of these issues was the adequacy of maps used by emergency response personnel for railroad accidents. The NTSB recommended that NENA should facilitate the inclusion of railroad milepost markers on all emergency response maps across the country.

After the formation of this Working Group, it was determined that other government agencies were interested in obtaining and standardizing this and other location data. The purpose of this Operational Information Document is to provide a recommendation regarding the development of a national database to include milepost information and other data for highways and railways within the United States.

It is recognized that standards are needed to identify define the data elements which should be provided on electronic and/or paper maps used by the public safety community. This will facilitate locating emergency events and providing coordination among responding local, state and federal units.

It is recommended that railroad and highway milepost and other location elements be integrated into a common dataset. These data, incorporated into electronic and paper maps, should be made available to PSAP call takers and other homeland security stakeholders. It is recommended that standards be developed to identify the process by which these data are to be disseminated. These data could also be incorporated into publicly available maps to magnify their utility.