C-Tran Plans to Upgrade Surveillance System with the Help of Federal Grant

According to Bob Medcraft, C-Tran field operations manager, C-Tran uses video from its on-board bus cameras for a variety of reasons, mostly mundane. In the coming year, with the help of a federal grant, a $1.35 million project will replace the agency's bus surveillance system.

Surveillance cameras on board C-Tran buses, by the end of next year, should also be capturing a clearer picture. Dating to the mid-1990s in some cases, C-Tran now uses clunky technology requiring plenty of leg work to review even the shortest clip.

“The entire process often takes two to three hours. It's really time-consuming. We try and only do it when we have an event that's worthy of doing it,” said Medcraft.

With the help of a federal grant, that process will be quickened by the broad upgrade which will give all buses new video technology. Buses will be equipped with higher quality cameras and automatic wireless downloading capability thanks to the project, which will be 80 percent paid through the federal State of Good Repair program.

Medcraft added that the aim of the project is to make the process less difficult and less costly, which in turn will help save a lot of time. C-Tran routinely pulls bus surveillance videos for review. The reason for reviewing the surveillance videos is usually mundane which includes customer complaints or questions however; the agency also reviews passengers' injury claims and every crash involving a C-Tran bus.

Moreover, if a bus camera happens to catch an incident, it may also assist with an investigation that doesn't involve C-Tran. Last month, a similar situation was caught by its camera on Highway 99, when a car sped past a bus before losing control in a crash that killed one person and critically injured another. The vast majority of what C-Tran's on-board cameras record, according to Medcraft, is quite boring.