A £2m pilot programme between Southeastern and Network Rail’s Kent Route (South Eastern Railway) is set to expand following a successful trial of onboard track monitoring equipment on passenger trains in South East London.

The trial using technology supplied by AIVR One Big Circle was fitted to twelve of the Southeasterns’ City Beam 707 class earlier this year.

Since their installation, the twelve units have saved over 9,000 minutes of possible delays by detecting 41 cases of track overheating, which were reported and resolved, preventing delays to train services.

With the success of detecting hotspots by the track maintenance technology on the City Beams, Southeastern is now expanding on the programme as they have started to fit twenty of the 375 Electrostar class with the AI-monitoring cameras, to cover the longer distance routes beyond the boundaries of its metro system, and further into Kent and East Sussex.

The Thermal Imaging Cameras detect the heat of the track and its surrounding formation. If a hotspot is detected by the train, the information is recorded and relayed to Network Rail, alerting them to the problem and enabling them to resolve the issue quickly, before the situation gets worse, thus preventing delays to train services.

While other TOCs are trialling a similar system on their trains, South Eastern Railway is leading the way in detecting and reporting track defects by rolling out the system on a greater scale.

It is hoped that in years to come, more passenger trains across the country will be fitted with this technology.

“This Government is fundamentally reforming how our railways are run, creating a network that works better for the people and freight using it.

The cutting-edge technology South Eastern Railway is installing on its trains is key to achieving this and should serve as an example of the kind of smart investments we’re making as publicly owned rail companies work to improve services.

These upgrades will prevent disruption and reduce delays, supporting local jobs, growth, and housing as part of the Government’s plan deliver an efficient and reliable railway.”

Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy

“Our integrated railway is using train-borne cameras to provide the early warnings we need to identify and fix problems before they cause disruption for our customers.

The cameras on the City Beams are monitoring our London Metro routes and now with a new set of cameras being added to 20 of our Class 375 trains we can look out for any issues on a much wider area across East Sussex and Kent. I’m confident that they will really help us in our drive to improve performance and reduce delays.”

Dan Paris, South Eastern Railway’s Fleet Maintenance Director