Vehicle area network (VAN) services have been launched in the U.S. and EU with a focus on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) interactions. However, V2V is not the whole story of the VAN concepts. As a case study of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, this position paper tries to show the necessity of vehicle-to-rail infrastructure networking with respect to the warning system at grade crossings. After describing the challenges of the current warning systems at grade crossings, we delineate a series of research plans about the possibility of the use of in-vehicle auditory warnings, plausible distracters, and the optimization of the information via V2I communication, which will lead to the ultimate conclusion of the necessity of V2I communication. We hope that this paper could contribute to the extension of the VAN concept and facilitate a debate on this topic in the Automotive UI community.