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CCTV system for Network Rail

CCTV system for Network Rail

01/01/2009 | Channel: Station Development, New Products & Services

Siemens Building Technologies Security Solutions is embarking on the second phase of CCTV system upgrades at Network Rail’s managed stations across the UK.

The second phase will bring the total number of CCTV cameras installed to over 4000, resulting in one of the UK’s largest surveillance networks covering thousands of miles, monitored from one central point.

Birmingham New Street, Liverpool Lime Street, Leeds, Manchester Piccadilly, Glasgow Central, Edinburgh Waverley and Gatwick Airport are all undergoing a massive CCTV refurbishment programme, which includes the installation of new cameras and a complete overhaul of the technical infrastructure. The £8 million second phase demonstrates Network Rail’s commitment to security systems and is aimed at providing a safer environment for passengers while enabling British Transport Police to detect, track and record criminal activity across the UK. It will bring station security at the regional mainline stations in line with Network Rail’s ten managed stations in London – which underwent a £9 million upgrade in 2005. Also carried out by Siemens Building Technologies Security Solutions, this saw the installation and integration of 2500 cameras onto a new digital recording system, giving Network Rail the ability to control any CCTV camera from any station.

The mammoth task involves the replacement of a fibre-optic infrastructure, the installation of over 1400 CCTV cameras, as well as mass digital recording systems, network creativity and GUI systems, plus the replacement of all control equipment and provision of the facility to enable remote monitoring by the British Transport Police.

The result will be one the most advanced CCTV systems of its type currently operating in the UK railway industry and will bring a virtually seamless network in which a single person can be tracked from any platform, on any managed station, through that station concourse.

SBT Security Solutions managing director Peter Hawksworth comments: “Network Rail recognises the security threat not just to London stations, but across its network to regional mainline stations too and is upgrading its security systems accordingly. With our assistance Network Rail will have one of the most sophisticated security systems to date, paralleled only to those at airports.”

Siemens will be mirroring much of the work carried out during the first phase in London. For example, all station cameras will be cabled to local equipment rooms at each station via a series of fibre-optic nodes, which are sited around the stations gathering images from cameras within a 50m radius of each other. Each station will then have a local recording facility where information can be viewed live or after the event with no interruption to recording. Stations will also have the ability to view live video from any other networked station, as will the British Transport Police from their facilities locally and in London.

Another piece of technology that will be adopted at the seven regional managed stations having proved extremely successful in London is a system that allows interactive maps to be produced of a station. This unique feature automatically finds all cameras which view a particular section of the station as chosen by an operator.

Siemens Building Technologies
Security Solutions
Tel: 01932 898500
Web: www.buildingtechnologies.siemens.co.uk/securitysolutions