Network Rail, LNER, CrossTech, and Hitachi Rail are working together to trial the latest in digital asset monitoring. This will monitor the natural environment and track, including vegetation and embankments.
Real-time monitoring of areas also improves safety by helping to identify potential hazards such as overhanging or invasive tree species, leaves on the tracks or bank subsidence that could cause damage or delay. Network Rail previously estimated that vegetation-related incidents cost up to £3 million a year in the southern region alone.
The new forward-facing CCTV (FFCV) was installed in the cab of an LNER Azuma train for the 12-month trial, which began in May. The Azuma train, which is now in service on the East Coast Main Line, is playing a key role in the digitalization of infrastructure monitoring and maintenance. The solution uses the latest artificial intelligence (AI) camera sensor technology.
The FFCCTV monitoring solution is a combination of CrossTech technology and Hitachi Rail's digital expertise in integration, operation and customer interface. This digital solution allows for automated and more accurate monitoring. It is helping to modernize railways.
“We can use this technology to understand where vegetation is encroaching on the operational railway and at risk of making contact with either trains or fixed infrastructure such as overhead electrified wires. We can also identify where vegetation growth has compromised the driver’s view such as on the approach to signals or level crossings. This initiative will allow us to make passengers’ journeys more reliable and help minimize the risk of disruption on the network,” said Johanna Priestley, Route Engineer at Network Rail.
