On the afternoon of the 12th September 2008, a Metrolink commuter rail passenger train collided head-on with a Union Pacific Railroad freight train in the Chatsworth district of LA, California. Although both trains were authorised to operate on the same track, investigators concluded that the primary cause was the Metrolink engineer failing to observe and respond to a red signal whilst using his phone, leading the train into an already occupied section of the track.
This was one of several major incidents to occur on U.S. railroads between 2002 and 2008 leading to the formation of the 2008 Rail Safety Improvement Act, which introduced a wave of new safety regulations. The Act mandated the implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) systems, defined as a solution capable of preventing train-to-train crashes, enforcing speed limits, protecting track workers, and keeping trains from running through a misaligned switch. The initial target was full conformity on Class I railroads by 2015, but this was eventually scaled back to 2020.
PTC systems are widely recognised for reducing the risk of major rail incidents by offering critical preventative features. However, their capabilities are more limited when it comes to ensuring compliance and diagnosing issues. This is where surveillance systems come into play.
In October 2023, the FRA issued its final rule on Locomotive Image and Audio Recording Devices for Passenger Trains, an initiative introduced under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. According to this rule, passenger locomotives must be equipped with inward and outward-facing cameras capable of recording and retaining at least 12 hours of footage, either in a crashworthy memory module or securely stored in the cloud. Rail operators have until October 2027 to comply with this mandate.
It is important to note that surveillance cameras are already in use throughout trains across the globe. According to the FRA, there are approximately 20,500 inward-facing cameras and 22,000 outward-facing cameras deployed (or soon to be) on freight locomotives. Meanwhile, in Europe and Asia Pacific, where passenger rail services are relied upon heavily by commuters, most trains are equipped with CCTV. It’s also worth noting that government intervention encouraging adoption of surveillance cameras has happened elsewhere.
The significance of the U.S. ruling for us comes down to the size of the opportunity on offer for connectivity vendors and also how the captured footage is now being handled thanks to advances in onboard technology and networks around the track.
We have seen an increasing number of trains possessing a modern variation of the train communication backbone, systems that are increasingly line-fitted before entering service. They are designed to support advanced operational and passenger-based connectivity applications, a capability that is becoming the standard as the rail industry moves collectively towards next generation initiatives like the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS).
While it might seem that passenger Wi-Fi would be a top priority for train operators and a central component of the communication backbone, adoption of these systems has slowed in recent years. This is based on data from Valour Consultancy’s report on ‘The Future of Connectivity in Rail’, which estimates only 12,487 trains worldwide are currently equipped with the requisite hardware. Service quality plays a role, but the bigger challenges lie in justifying the business case for passenger Wi-Fi on its own, given the high costs involved. Surveillance, however, tells a different story. With it enabling increased security, operational efficiency and fast incident response times – priorities that carry weight on a national security scale, surveillance in the rail industry offers a far more compelling value proposition.
Communication backbones are providing the means to transform surveillance from the traditional “store and forward” application into a real-time capability. This shift brings us back to the U.S. where the FRA has acknowledged the advancements made in this space, paving the way for rail operators in this region to securely store surveillance footage in the cloud or at the very least, offload via a private network when trains are at stations, sidings or rail yards. The US is not alone in this progress. The UK, often an early adopter of rail technology, has seen many major operators implement real-time surveillance systems. These efforts support nationwide security initiatives and enable continuous monitoring of rail infrastructure, tracking the gradual intrusion of foliage around it.
This combination of surveillance and digitalisation on trains has led to the formation of an entire ecosystem around the capture, analysis and secure sharing of footage. UK-based CrossTech, for example, leverages AI to inspect and detect rail infrastructure issues across railways, and was at the heart of a significant 12-month trial initiated in 2024 by Network Rail, LNER, and Hitachi Rail. Whilst connectivity integrator and service provider, Icomera released its own real-time video surveillance platform in 2023, branded ICONIC VMS, allowing operators to port into live onboard camera feeds.
So, what’s the key takeaway? We anticipate that the adoption of real-time surveillance solutions will become increasingly widespread, driven by three core factors: (i) the sustained emphasis on surveillance by governments, (ii) the growing integration of Industry 4.0 technologies like AI within the rail sector, and (iii) the proliferation of high-bandwidth communication backbones on trains. Furthermore, by leveraging the infrastructure used to offload or access footage, whether that be cellular (e.g. McLaren Applied), trackside (e.g. Nomad Digital) or satellite (Starlink, OneWeb) – more rail operators may find a clearer business case for deployment of high-speed passenger Wi-Fi as part of a second wave of investment. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts.
Valour Consultancy is about to release its new land mobility report, titled “The Future of Connectivity in Rail – 2025”, which focusses on demand for surveillance and passenger Wi-Fi. The report includes forecasts on the growth of these systems, as well as the growth of cellular, trackside and satellite by train type and region. Please enquire here if you’d like to receive a copy or have any questions.
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