Ensuring public transport safety with a unified security system
Western Australia’s Public Transport Authority needed to increase security for passengers and personnel on remote routes. They wanted a solution that would provide greater visibility for central monitoring without interfering with passenger experience.
The company
The Public Transport Authority (PTA) is Western Australia’s primary supplier of public transportation services. Each year, they facilitate more than 110 million passenger journeys on metropolitan and regional networks. To do this, they manage the transportation infrastructure in the State capital, Perth, and operate the city’s bus, ferry, and train services as well as regional road coach and train services throughout the State. Their goal is to provide safe, integrated, and efficient transportation to the communities they serve. They meet this goal by continuously maintaining and upgrading their network to ensure that it remains safe, accessible, and reliable for everyone.
The challenge
Western Australia covers almost a million square miles of land and is home to more than 2.6 million people. One of the main challenges of providing transportation services to such a large area is ensuring the safety and security of passengers and operators. To meet this challenge, the PTA required a surveillance system that would allow security personnel to monitor buses remotely without inconveniencing passengers. They also wanted to have seamless access to video surveillance feeds and records for transit vehicles and roadside stops. And, in cases that required intervention, they wanted their system to be able to monitor responses.
The solution
Seamless surveillance
Working with the Transit portfolio of the Security Center unified platform and Axiomtek embedded solutions allow the PTA to continuously monitor buses operating in remote areas.
Complete system view
By unifying their approach, the PTA is able to provide increased security for passengers and personnel across their entire transport system, including on remote buses and at roadside stops.
“Thanks to the Security Center platform and embedded Axiomtek solutions, our Central Monitoring Room can track remote incidents with high-quality footage that allows for unprecedented views of any situation.”
David Cohn, Operations Team Lead, Public Transport Authority of Western Australia
Results
In January of 2019, the PTA deployed the Genetec™ Security Center unified platform with embedded Axiomtek hardware running the Security Center Fleet Monitoring solution. Now, vehicle location data and video feeds are uploaded automatically, and the PTA has a complete picture of their large and complex transport system. The solution enables security personnel to monitor incidents remotely and provides an overview of passenger and staff interactions that a ‘body-worn camera solution couldn’t provide.’
Working with a unified solution provides the PTA the seamless surveillance that they require. To achieve this, the PTA fitted each of their bus system and security patrol vehicles with an Axiomtek tBOX and AXIS Sensor. Using Security Center Fleet Monitoring, live video can now be sent over the internet from the patrol cars to the central monitoring room as well as vehicle location data. Security Center gives personnel access to on-demand live streaming in HD and allows them to rapidly track the location of their vehicles on a map to deploy nearby resources.