01.11.06
Monitoring the future
Andy Curzon, technical services director, Balfour Beatty Rail Technologies, discusses recent advances in track monitoring and station surveillance
Two new systems that offer improvements in performance and functionality, with reduced through-life cost, have recently been installed in the UK. Both use a network of high definition wireless linked CCTV cameras, and are able to monitor the condition of Railway Infrastructure assets more efficiently than ever before.
Track View is a new system installed in one of the busiest railway corridors in London, and shows that intelligent surveillance systems offer significant benefits in busy and congested areas where opportunities for maintenance patrolling are very limited or present a serious safety hazard.
The system uses an array of wireless linked cameras that allow the track maintenance engineer to monitor the condition of the track remotely and safely, either manually or following a pre-programmed inspection route. Real time data processing will also allow the system to automatically alarm when rail faults (missing components, gross track deflections etc), obstacles or trespassing is detected.
Track View can also interface with event monitoring systems and mobile devices (PDA) allowing the condition of the infrastructure, particularly ‘golden assets’ to be monitored off-site.
Station View is a related, unique and best value system that provides very efficient, cost efficient CCTV coverage at station halls or platforms. The system uses high mega-pixel 360? devices that allow camera numbers to be reduced dramatically. The resulting system provides better coverage and functionality than conventional systems but allows a significant reduction in the installation and maintenance costs.
High bandwidth Wireless Point-to-Multipoint connectivity ensures peerless performance and intelligent software provides alarming, object recognition functionality and efficient data storage and retrieval. The system is currently installed at one of London’s busy underground stations.
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