Ravensbourne Boating Club Commodore Warwick Graham says he has seen numerous near misses on the crossing on the Ravensbourne section shared pathway and it is only a matter of time before someone is hit and possibly killed.
Added safety features, such as a barrier arms, lighting or bells, need to be installed before that happens, he says.
''It's no good waiting until somebody gets killed. I don't want to be picking up body parts off the railway lines,'' he said.
The crossing is next to the boat club.
He had raised the issue with KiwiRail, which told him it would cost about $210,000 to install an alarm system on the crossing, Mr Graham said. The near misses he had seen included a person crossing less than 30m from a train, and a child getting a bike wheel stuck in the track, he said.
All that separated cyclists and pedestrians from the track was a wooden fence chicane, which was not good enough, he said.
Cyclists, often listening to music on headphones, were frequently too busy trying to stay upright through the chicane to be aware if a train was coming, and children often came up to the crossing unattended, he said.
In an effort to see how often the crossing was used, Mr Graham installed a camera to take pictures for 24 hours from 6am on Easter Monday.
In that time, photos showed it had been crossed 760 times. Because the camera took images only every 10 seconds, it was likely the actual number was higher, he said.
Mr Graham passed the figures on to KiwiRail, which told him a safer crossing should be considered if a line was crossed more than 800 times a day, he said.
After being approached by Mr Graham, Chalmers Community Board member Mel Aitken raised the issue at a meeting last month, with the board asking a KiwiRail representative to its next meeting to discuss the issue.
Mrs Aitken said something should be done sooner rather than later.
''Now that we know there is an issue there, we would look pretty silly if we waited for something to happen,'' Mrs Aitken saidShe was also concerned about vegetation on the track and the time it took to get broken lights fixed.
Despite the problems, she still believed the cycleway was a great facility.
A KiwiRail spokeswoman was aware of concerns, but said the Dunedin City Council would need to foot the bill for any safety upgrades.
''Our agreement with the council provides for upgrades to safety measures at the level crossing to be funded by the council if required.
''We are happy to work with them to monitor this and ensure appropriate steps are taken if necessary,'' she said.
The crossing on the shared pathway was ''well built, with good sight lines and mazes, which are designed to slow people down'', the spokeswoman said.
Dunedin City Council senior traffic engineer Ron Minnema said the council was yet to be made aware of the issue.
It would discuss the concerns with KiwiRail and was ''prepared to review what is there and see whether it is still appropriate''.
A regular user of the shared pathway himself, he said the concerns ''may well be valid''.
''Depending on which way the wind is blowing, those trains can be very hard to hear.''
Other problems brought up by Mrs Aitken, including overhanging vegetation, had been remedied.
The council was trying to improve communication between the different parties so the pathway was kept in better order.
