Big Brother on the trains

A behind-the-scenes look at the Swiss Federal Railways transports police video surveillance hub. (SRF/swissinfo.ch)

At present, the federal railways transport police video surveillance team has access to around 1,600 surveillance cameras in railway stations and approximately 12,000 on regional trains.

Investment in those video surveillance systems is set to continue. The federal railways recognises the importance of CCTV cameras in fighting and preventing crime and has for the current year more than doubled the personnel in the Transport Police’s video surveillance team. 

As of 2017, the first CCTV cameras will also come into operation on long distance trains. 

To ensure the safety of passengers, for years the railways have been applying a ‘prevention-dissuasion-repression’ strategy. In a bid to deter crime, the railways ensures a uniform presence of security personnel but also relys on the presence of video surveillance cameras.

Until now, in offences involved aggression and theft, the railways claims an 80% rate of successfully solved cases, and says that’s also thanks to the increased reliability of police personnel on video surveillance.