In the early hours of New Year’s Eve 2025, hidden security cameras along the Core Valley Lines in Wales detected three individuals attempting to steal railway cable. The footage triggered a rapid response, and the suspects were intercepted and arrested before they could complete the theft, preventing disruption to rail services. It is a textbook example of how modern CCTV — especially when tied to live monitoring and analytics — can turn a high‑risk, linear environment into a much harder target.
While that incident took place in the UK, the core risks are familiar to Canadian rail and intermodal yard operators. Long, exposed corridors, remote sidings, and complex switching areas create multiple opportunities for cable theft, equipment vandalism, trespass and even tragic strikes involving pedestrians. As Canadian yards expand and handle more freight, the question is becoming less “Should we have cameras?” and more “How comprehensive does our CCTV system need to be to actually reduce risk?”
Why rail yards are uniquely challenging to secure
Rail yards combine several risk factors that are difficult to manage with legacy security models:
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Long linear assets: Track stretches, signalling equipment and sidings can extend for kilometres, making it hard to cover everything with a small number of fixed cameras.
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Critical infrastructure: Copper cable, signalling boxes and control equipment are attractive targets for thieves but also essential to safety and service continuity.
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Multiple stakeholders: Mainline operators, shortlines, intermodal tenants, maintenance contractors and truck carriers may all share space, complicating access control.
Research into rail network surveillance highlights how CCTV, combined with video analytics, is being deployed to automatically detect static objects, unexpected events and trespassing in order to prevent potential dangers. However, to work effectively, these systems need enough camera coverage and resolution to feed reliable data into analytics models across a very large footprint.
Why 64‑camera systems are becoming the baseline
For a CN‑ or CP‑scale classification yard or a busy intermodal terminal, it is increasingly unrealistic to think that 16 or 24 cameras can provide meaningful coverage. Many Canadian rail yards are now looking at 64‑camera CCTV configurations as a practical baseline, particularly when they:
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Sit near urban areas where copper theft and trespass risks are higher.
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Interface with busy road networks and trucking operations at intermodal terminals.
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Have a mix of freight and passenger movements, raising the stakes on safety incidents.
A 64‑camera design allows yards to blend fixed and PTZ cameras in a way that covers both linear track segments and high‑activity nodes such as switches, hump yards, intermodal pads and gate complexes. Research on multimodal sensor data fusion for rail security also notes that managing information overload and false alarms is a challenge; more cameras feeding into smarter analytics helps distinguish real threats from noise.
Key zones to cover in a modern rail yard CCTV design
When designing 64‑camera CCTV for Canadian rail yards, a risk‑based layout usually prioritises several critical zones.
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Perimeter, fences and access roads
Long fence runs near public roads, trails or industrial neighbours are often where cable theft and trespass attempts begin. PTZ cameras with infrared capabilities can scan these areas and zoom in on suspects, while fixed cameras at gates and junctions capture vehicles, plates and faces for investigations. -
Signalling and cable runs
Incidents like the Core Valley Lines cable theft attempt show that thieves will target specific assets such as cable troughs and signalling cabinets. Strategically placed cameras along these runs, paired with analytics that detect people where they should never be, enable early intervention before equipment is damaged and services are disrupted. -
Hump yards and switching zones
Classification operations involve frequent coupling and decoupling, with workers on the ground between moving cars. Overhead cameras can help safety teams review near‑misses, ensure adherence to procedures, and investigate injuries. They also provide context if vandalism or theft occurs while trains are being built. -
Intermodal pads and truck gates
In combined rail‑truck logistics hubs, high‑value containers and trailers move in and out constantly. Cameras at gates must capture vehicle identities, container numbers, and driver faces, while pad coverage documents who moved which box where. This not only deters theft but also supports claims when damage or shortages are disputed. -
Pedestrian access and public interfaces
For yards near commuter stations or public crossings, cameras help manage trespass risk and provide critical footage when there are incidents involving pedestrians or vehicles on the tracks. Research on rail surveillance emphasizes the importance of behaviour recognition to spot people in dangerous zones before a collision occurs.
Video analytics: from watching tracks to watching patterns
With dozens of cameras across a yard, no human operator can watch every feed all the time. That is where analytics become vital. Recent surveys of rail surveillance systems describe how object detection and behaviour recognition are being used to monitor people, detect static objects and flag unexpected events in rail environments. Emerging multimodal approaches combine video with other sensors to improve detection of critical events while managing false alarms.
In practical terms for Canadian rail operators, this means:
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Using intrusion detection analytics along fences and restricted track areas to spot people or vehicles crossing into zones where there should be no traffic.
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Applying loitering and crowding detection in passenger interface areas to identify unusual behaviour that could precede vandalism, self‑harm, or other incidents.
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Deploying object‑left‑behind alerts near critical equipment where tools, debris or suspicious packages could create a hazard.
The point is not to replace human judgment but to focus attention where it is needed, turning 64‑camera CCTV for Canadian rail yards into a proactive safety and security tool rather than a passive recorder.
Operational and safety benefits beyond theft
While cable theft, vandalism and trespass are often the headlines, rail yard video systems also bring quieter, day‑to‑day value:
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Incident reconstruction: When there is a near‑miss, derailment within the yard, or worker injury, video lets safety teams reconstruct events accurately rather than relying on memory or conflicting accounts.
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Procedure adherence: Cameras can help supervisors verify that lockout/tagout steps, radio protocols, and speed restrictions are being followed in complex switching areas.
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Contractor management: Video oversight of third‑party work — from vegetation control to signal maintenance — helps ensure work is completed safely and in accordance with contracts.
These benefits matter as much to risk and safety teams as the deterrent effect on thieves, and they help build the business case for more comprehensive systems.
How ForceVision can help rail and intermodal operators
Designing 64‑camera CCTV for Canadian rail yards is not a one‑size‑fits‑all exercise. A busy intermodal terminal outside Toronto has different needs from a remote classification yard in Northern Ontario. ForceVision works with rail and logistics operators across the province to map specific risk profiles, from cable theft and trespass to complex truck‑rail interactions.
Our approach focuses on aligning camera placement, analytics capabilities and retention policies with your real‑world operations and regulatory environment. If you are unsure whether your current 20‑ or 30‑camera system can truly support modern yard safety and asset protection requirements, ForceVision can provide a no‑pressure assessment and scenario walk‑through to highlight gaps and options. Sometimes the first step is as simple as stress‑testing one recent incident and asking whether your existing footage would have been enough if the outcome had been worse.
FAQs
Q1: Why is 64 cameras a common reference point for rail yards?
Because of their size and complexity, most working rail yards quickly exhaust a small camera count when they start properly covering perimeters, critical equipment, yard operations, and public interfaces. Around 64 cameras often proves to be a practical balance between coverage, cost and manageability for medium to large yards.
Q2: Can analytics really reduce trespass and suicide risk?
Analytics cannot eliminate risk, but they can detect people in hazardous zones more quickly and at greater distances than human observers alone, especially at night or in poor weather. Research shows that CCTV with behaviour detection can help identify potential incidents earlier, giving responders more time to intervene.
Q3: How do these systems handle false alarms from animals or blowing debris?
Modern analytics platforms are designed to distinguish between people, vehicles and other movement patterns, and multimodal sensor fusion further reduces false positives by combining information from multiple sources. Fine‑tuning during commissioning is critical to strike the right balance between sensitivity and practicality.
Q4: Do rail yards need separate systems for safety and security?
In many cases, a well‑designed platform can serve both purposes. Cameras placed for security can also support safety investigations and compliance audits, provided that privacy, labour relations and regulatory requirements are carefully addressed in policy and system configuration.
