A cutting-edge safety concept: VGF expands the video system

With over 2,500 employees, Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt am Main (VGF), formed in 1996, is one of the biggest employers in the city and the entire Rhein-Main region. With 400 rail vehicles, the transportation service provider ensures comprehensive mobility on nine underground and ten tram lines. At peak times the VGF carries over 200 million passengers a year. To ensure their safety, it invested in a service and safety centre with an operations control system and integrated video and alarm technology for the soccer World Cup in 2006. Amended legislation on the critical infrastructure and new technological possibilities required modernization of the initial concept.

During system conversion, VGF operations had to continue uninterrupted, and there were further restrictions on travel and contact due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these complications, the project ran smoothly and was completed within the planned narrow time slot. A key factor in this success was the long-standing partnership between vi2vi GmbH and Axis Communications. Together with the necessary expertise on both sides, this ensured tight and solution-oriented communication at all times. The expanded and connected video system enables VGF to assess incidents better, respond faster, optimize operations management and enhance passenger safety in real time.

System conversion work at VGF started in March 2021, and was strongly impacted by the effects of the COVID pandemic. Prevailing restrictions on travel and contact required a new and unconventional project management using online collaboration tools and videoconferencing. "In this project work acceptance was extremely unusual and different, as it took place entirely virtually for the first time, with all the procedures simulated and transmitted to participants in real time, Thomas Kunz explains. "The fact that everything went smoothly and on schedule despite this enormous challenge is primarily due to the commitment, smooth cooperation and communication of all those involved in the project."

The incidents handled by the team at the VGF service and safety centre are in most cases reported by passengers over the emergency and information posts at the stations and tram stops. For VGF, this meant that a central concern was to create an overall solution with independent components and applications that communicate with each other over standardized interfaces. The newly-installed IP cameras are linked with the emergency and information posts through the individual components in the overall system: if there is an information or emergency call at a post, the neighbouring cameras automatically switch on, providing high-quality visual information on the environment. The staff at the centre receiving the call have an overall view of the local situation in real time. At the same time, the geoinformation system integrated in the operations control system shows them the exact position of the event on a map.

Even if crime cannot be completely prevented in future by modernizing and expanding the safety concept, VGF has achieved its goal with the project. It is able to act more effectively and assess situations better.