Integral to the smooth running of this new world-class light rail system is the ability to manage incidents, be they operational, safety, security, critical maintenance or cyber or natural disasters. With the project built from the ground up, NTA comissioned the the creation of a cutting-edge technological ecosystem that would connect the many different stakeholders involved in the Red Line to provide truly holistic, end-to-end management of the entire incident lifecycle. This large-scale, complex initiative was ultimately implimented by MTRS (MTRS3 Solutions and Services Ltd.), an international transport security consulting company based in Israel that has been NTA’s trusted security and emergency preparedness consultant for mass transport projects since 2015.
Following an exhaustive tender process, during which NTA and MTRS evaluated solutions available on the market, Octave was awarded the contract to supply and assimilate its Octave Coda Orchestrator (formerly HxGN dC3 Orchestrator) incident management system.
Given the importance and scale of this project, high demands were placed on the solution. It needed to be a single, unified installation, capable of effectively operating as a traditional PSIM for security-related tasks, as well as an incident management system for managing the response to operational, safety, critical maintenance, cyber and natural disaster emergencies and crises.
Getting the most advanced, tailored solution was important, but it was also essential the vendor demonstrated proven vertical sector experience. To this end, it was very beneficial that Octave could present NTA with the opportunity to observe a fully operational Coda Orchestrator system in Europe, as well as at other reference sites with rail operators around the world.
Octave has a wealth of experience in the deployment of incident management solutions for rail operators around the world.
Octave has a wealth of experience in the deployment of incident management solutions for rail operators around the world.
Coda Orchestrator is a leading incident management system that addresses every aspect of the incident lifecycle. It is designed to integrate and correlate vast amounts of information in real time, from multiple diverse systems. This state-of-the-art level of integration ensures situational awareness is delivered when and where it is needed, helping mitigate risk, prevent incident escalation and ensure a reliable, fully coordinated, appropriate and consistent response every time.
With the Red Line scheduled to begin commercial operations in the summer of 2023, a rigorous process of design, integration, configuration, testing and commissioning of the solution commenced. It was especially important to the customer to have total confidence in the technology, methodology and procedures to ensure the entire system would be fully operational when the first train departed.
The scale of the task was immense, with direct integrations between Coda Orchestrator and more than 20 security-, safety- and rail-related systems encompassing more than 10,000 data points. The systems and subsystems include video surveillance (3,000 wayside and on-board cameras), access control (including gates, doors and barriers) and perimeter intruder detection, fire and smoke detection, passenger help points, public address and display systems and automatic fare collection. These systems are installed in stations, stops, tunnels, at-grade alignment tracks, depots and on board the trains. In addition, there are integrations (through an enterprise service bus) with the signalling and train control systems and other services and information management systems, such as an asset and maintenance management system and a geographic information system.
By integrating this complex architecture of sophisticated systems to produce a single unified solution, operators are provided with workstations from which they can centrally coordinate the appropriate incident response. The process of developing predetermined workflows to manage the vast array of operational, safety, security, cyber, critical maintenance and natural disaster incidents that could potentially occur on the line was intensive. All stakeholders were consulted from day one of the system’s design to deliver a solution that would be intuitive for operators to use on a daily basis.