Thermal imaging helps to protect critical depots serving Europe’s largest underground railway
Over 4.2 million people use the London Underground each day. Although not often visible to customers, during the night thousands of people are also busy at work to ensure that the signalling, tracks and other critical infrastructure is maintained and upgraded to meet increased demands placed on the Tube network.
Many of these depots and goods-yards are often alongside track areas and need to be accessible 24 hours a day, sometimes at short notice, to allow engineering teams to carry out their tasks. The loss of specialist equipment Protecting Critical Infrastructure for London Underground through theft can impact the entire network as certain items are custom made for London Underground requiring manufacturing lead times of up to 20 weeks. Although depots offer convenient access, the trackside location places some restrictions on how these locations are secured.
A project to secure a London Underground depot required innovative solutions, and needed to take into account the limitation imposed by the depot’s location while addressing the need to maintain 24 hour a day access with full audit of who has accessed the site and what equipment had been removed. LU were also keen to avoid using cumbersome pan-tilt-zoom cameras and external housings while still ensuring the site was always covered while using the least number of devices to increase reliability of the system. To this end, Vicom, a highly regarded systems specialist with a number of successful rail sector projects under its belt proposed an innovative solution utilising a combination of MOBOTIX thermal and hemispheric cameras utilising advanced analytics with local access control with remote monitoring.
The system allows us to effectively secure the depot and gain access whenever we need, this has proven a successful project, and based on the results, it is an approach we could consider adopting at other sites across the Capital.
John Hinds CEng MIET
Senior Telecommunications Engineer for London Underground
Intelligent Video Solutions
Konica Minolta’s Intelligent video and data solutions combine visual, thermal, sound and sensor data to better protect any environment. With a reputation for being the most robust cameras in the industry, these highly durable, IoT-enabled devices deliver exceptional image quality and data analysis.