Effective Video Management Increases Safety on the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn

Thinking of railways in Switzerland unavoidably conjures up images of the famous Glacier Express. And it‘s true that the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn does operate this internationally famous tourist experience train together with the Rhätische Bahn. But the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn also plays a leading role in operating regional transport in the Gotthard region, operates the Auto­verlad Furka and brings guests and goods into car-free Zermatt. More than six million passengers use its routes each year. Sine the end of 2012, customer information services have improved and traveling with the MGBahn has become even safer through the use of modern video technology.

When the decision was taken to introduce a video surveillance system on the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, the need for better security on the stations or the fight against vandalism had lower priority. Much more important was the desire to have a better ability to generally provide the passengers with more information on the platforms, to be able to see even the most remote station at a central point at any time so that staff could react effectively to specific situations and any possible danger. It should be noted that the numerous stops to be monitored along the lines of the MGBahn present many different operating conditions. The palette ranges from a busy city station - such as Brig for example - to the request stop up in the mountains, where the station only operates for a few hours, and only on sunny days.

The Project
After issuing a tender, the MGBahn decided in the middle of 2011 to work together with Ruf Multimedia AG as integrator. The decision for Ruf Multimedia AG fell not least because of successful cooperation on previous projects and because of the capability of the company to integrate both passenger information and video surveillance into one solution. The long-established Ruf Group, with its headquarters in Schlieren near Zürich housing 200 employees, is internationally active and specializes in solutions for public authorities and public transport.

This was no easy task for Project Manager Sven Schraven and his team: first of all eight stations should be centrally monitored in the pilot project, the final size being 43 stations. The video data should be gathered in the central operations room together with all other data relevant for rail transport safety and made available to the company‘s own highly-qualified team. The team works around the clock ensuring the safety of passengers and, as well as providing safe rail travel, also supplies the passengers with all relevant information.

Video Surveillance
In an early phase it already became clear that the operations room must have access to recorded data as well as the live images coming in from the cameras on all stations. The video data should therefore be stored locally in full definition at each station so as not to overload the data circuits leading to the central control room (1GB network) that are also used for other purposes.

To keep the installation effort to a minimum but nevertheless receive high-definition images it was decided to use three Megapixel camera models from Axis for the outside areas that all deliver pictures in HD: the Axis P1344 E, Axis P3344 VE and Axis Q 1755 E with 10x optical zoom for monitoring the platforms.

Those who know the weather in Switzerland and the conditions at the stations also know that the cameras up in the mountains are exposed to extreme climatic conditions. Installation and any maintenance work on the overhead lines are extremely difficult and rail service must sometimes be suspended for a while. It was then all the more reassuring to find that, during the entire 6-month test phase through a hard Swiss Winter, not one camera failed. That saves costs and avoids stoppages.

Manage the Data and Maintain an Overview
The team in the central operations room of the MGBahn must have both the video data and the information relating to train operation in view. A flexible layout of the GUI on the workstations was requested for different operators, so when choosing the video management system the very simple and user-friendly software XProtect Enterprise from Milestone Systems was an obvious choice. What was needed was a robust and easy-to-install software that met the needs for local storage and central management.

Project Manager Sven Schraven has never regretted the decision to employ the XProtect Enterprise solution from Milestone: „The XProtect Enterprise solution allows us to store on many commonly administered servers and easily copes with the 100 or so cameras in the final configuration. The software fulfills the need for a robust centrally-managed system. We store the video data as legally required for 72 hours on our local servers that are running XProtect Enterprise. The central control room has access to all the high-definition data at any time if needed should the H.264 compressed and continuously transmitted live streams in VGA-resolution not be sufficient. Training the staff was very easy and the XProtect Smart Client user interface appealed to them with its intuitive layout. The problem-free operation means that we have virtually no questions from the users. They and we are totally happy with the system."

One Solution, Many Advantages
The system has been running now for many months without any problems and construction of the final stage has now begun. The hurdle of increasing the information available and the safety of the passengers has already been easily cleared by this solution. It is also groundbreaking because of the integration of the video surveillance with the modern passenger information system developed together by ib datentechnik and PSI Transcom. No-one waits on the platform anymore with no idea what to do. The central control room now has images of the local situation and can inform passengers with announcements and via the display boards.