Modern people have long been accustomed to level crossings that are found on highways, but seeing a train in the middle of the main runway at an airport is completely incomprehensible. Moreover, this is not all the oddities that can be found on our planet. It turns out that when landing or taking off, airliners can cross a busy highway several times a day, always loaded with a stream of cars. What could have happened so that incompatible directions and transport junctions with a huge risk to people's lives met each other on the way, we will now try to figure it out.
Airport in Gisborne with a railroad crossing in the middle of the runway (New Zealand)
A small settlement in New Zealand, located on the North Island, became famous only due to the fact that the only airport in the world is located in Gisborne, an air-runway, which is crossed by … a railroad bed. The authorities explain such an unusually risky neighborhood by the peculiarities of the relief. Back in the 19th century, during the active construction of the railway to connect Gisborne and Palmerston North, a track was laid along the most flat place of the island in order to avoid unnecessary costs and problems.
But over time, when air travel became more in demand, it became necessary to build an airport, which must be located only on flat areas. As it turned out, the only suitable place to create the runway was crossed by the railway track, which was simply nowhere to move, despite the rather impressive area that was allocated for the construction of the airport (160 hectares).
After lengthy calculations and meetings, a compromise solution was found to leave the track, having agreed in advance to agree on a per-minute schedule of two completely different vehicles. According to Novate. Ru, after the air harbor was built and put into operation, Gisborne turned into a regional air hub, which receives domestic flights to 60 destinations with 130 thousand passenger traffic and 136 thousand tons of freight traffic per year.
Informative: Hub is an airport that is used as a hub for connecting flights (passenger and cargo). Such air harbors organize and simplify the management of traffic flows, both internationally and regionally.
Today, only at this airport can one become a witness of the unthinkable situation when the taxiing plane simply stands and waits for the train to pass, and only then goes to take off. This is the only place in the world where air traffic controllers have a double burden, because they have to control the movement of both airliners and trains so that emergency situations do not arise.
Airport in Gibraltar with a runway crossing the expressway
The Peninsula of Gibraltar is a tiny overseas part of Great Britain, famous for its unique airport, which, in addition to having a bulk runway extending several hundred meters into the sea, also intercepts the capital's busiest freeway. Such oddities, unexpected for such a powerful transport hub, did not arise because of someone's joke or entertainment for the sake of entertainment. There are pretty good reasons for this, which cannot be changed in any way.
Considering the very small territory of the peninsula, which has an area of only 6, 5 sq. Km. and the lack of a flat surface to create a transport hub, forced the owners of the airport to make non-standard decisions in order to find a way out of this situation. No matter how they cut a small area, and tried to locate the airport with taxiways and runways, there was nothing left to do but install ordinary traffic lights that regulate the movement of vehicles and … airliners.
Naturally, in this case, aircraft always remain a priority, motorists only have to wait until a multi-ton car rushes and rises up. The only thing that comforts those traveling by land transport along the main avenue of Gibraltar is the low congestion of the airport. Luckily for everyone, it only serves 30 flights a week.
Well, the most interesting thing in this essentially sad situation, a spectacle unprecedented for all other airports attracts a huge number of tourists who can watch for hours at the side of the road in order to capture an airliner rushing across the highway, and at this moment pedestrians and cars are separated from the runway only flimsy barrier and low curbs.
Despite the fact that the 21st century is already in the yard there are airports in the world that will provide extreme takeoff or landing at times steeper than these two, the most non-standard. And the point is not in the skill of the pilots and flight personnel, but in the very conditions under which they have to fly into the sky and land a huge ship with a bunch of passengers on board.