Politics & Government

Caltrain to Install Cameras on Trains

The cameras will operate 24 hours a day.

Caltrain is adding 65 cameras to its trains this summer in order to keep track of everything that happens in its presence.

The digital video recording equipment will be added to all the locomotives and cab cars operated by Caltrain, on both the front and the back of each piece of equipment, Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said.

The cameras will only be placed outside the trains.

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"This is a project we’ve been working on for a couple of years," Christine Dunn said.

The Board of Directors that oversees Caltrain approved the purchase of the cameras in 2008, which is being paid for with grant money.

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The first 20 cameras to be installed will cost $283,000, the additional 50 is $684,000, Dunn said. That total includes five spares that Caltrain can use in case equipment breaks down, she said.

The cost accounts for the system as well as to install and test the equipment.

The cameras will operate 24 hours a day, and will be used as another tool in an investigation of any accidents or fatalities that happen on the Caltrain right-of-way, Dunn said.

"They’ll record everything that’s in front of them," she said, which "will include trespassers on the right of way, anything that’s happening in the maintenance yard, vandalism, signals along the train tracks."

Dunn said that despite recent speculation, the cameras are not being installed as a direct response to recent suicides on Caltrain tracks.


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