Light Pollution Caused by Railway Station Lighting Systems - Case Study

This paper deals with the radiation of outdoor lighting systems on railways. Due to the number and size of railway stations and their areas, these can contribute significantly to the increase of "light pollution" through the radiation of their luminous flux into the upper hemisphere. Outdoor lighting systems on railways behave de-facto like road lighting systems, but they are usually not taken into account as a significant contributor to light pollution and are of little interest.The aim of the paper is to show, by the example of the behaviour of a small railway station, the changes in the behaviour of the luminous flux in a given small railway station. The findings address whether new LED-based lighting systems, which respect all normative recommendations not only in terms of the required light technical parameters in the visual task areas, but especially in terms of the requirements for minimizing direct radiation into the upper hemisphere, are really better than the physically and morally obsolete lighting systems implemented 20 to 40 years ago, dominated by luminaires equipped with high-pressure sodium lamps. The paper discusses not only the light technical parameters, but also the power input parameters and the number of luminaires that are necessary to achieve the normative requirements, which result not from environmental requirements, but from safety requirements.