The railroads do not have the authority to place gates, or even lights for that matter. The State and federal agencies use a rather complicated formula that looks at train traffic, auto traffic, how many tracks, how many traffic lanes, layout of the crossing and so on and so forth. If a certain corssing doesnt meet the criteria, it wont get the gates or even lights.
About 99% of the time the state or federal goverment pays for the instalation or upgrading of crossing protection, and then they split maintanance and inspection cost with the railroad.
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