Caltrain to Install Cameras on Trains

Caltrain is adding 65 cameras to its trains this summer to monitor everything that happens on the tracks.

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 on the outside of the trains.

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

The first 20 cameras to be installed will cost $283,000, while the additional 50 will cost $684,000, Dunn said. Five spares will be kept in storage for Caltrain to use if the equipment breaks.

The total will pay for the system, as well as installation and testing.

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.