Elimination of railroad crossing must be reasonably necessary in the interest of public safety.

A railroad company petitioned the City of Royston to eliminate four highway-rail grade crossings.   The City denied the petition, but employed none of the criteria for evaluating a crossing’s safety.  After applying said criteria, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) determined that two of the crossings should be eliminated, and two should remain open.  After both the City and the railroad company appealed, the Court upheld GDOT’s determination, finding that elimination of two of the crossings was reasonably necessary in the interest of public safety, but that elimination of the two remaining crossings posed inconvenience to the reasonable passage of public traffic that outweighed the enhancement of public safety.