Analysis and Assessment of Railway CCTV System Operating Reliability

Abstract

The article reviews the history and the direction of development for railway CCTV (Closed-Circuit TeleVision) systems. The authors described the CCTV system at PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A. and the associated network and server infrastructure. The authors proposed an operational model for a centralized CCTV system that assumes states of partial fitness, in accordance with the regulations of the national railway infrastructure administrator. The aim of the paper is to review, analyse, and evaluate the operational reliability of railroad video monitoring systems in relation to the assumptions of the national railroad infrastructure manager using an operational model. A unified system structure is presented in the article. The model was used as a base to calculate the probabilities for the system while staying in the assumed states. Calculations showed that a centralized CCTV system is characterized by high reliability and satisfies the expectations of PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A. in this respect. The obtained result of 99.88% probability of leaving the analysed video surveillance system in a fully operational condition within a year indicates a high level of security of the applied solutions in such a large system. The analysed system is one of the largest such solutions designed in the European Union and the largest in Poland, which is an important contribution to the development and implementation of such extensive video surveillance systems in the future. The research question is whether the extensive centralized railway CCTV systems will meet the requirements of PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A.