Thales to modernize Brescia Metro

• Brescia is a city in the region of Lombardy in Northern Italy. With a population of more than 200,000, it is the second largest city in the region and the fourth of northwest Italy. The city is the administrative capital of the Province of Brescia, one of the largest in Italy, with over 1,200,000 inhabitants.
• The Brescia Metro covers 17 stations plus 1 depot, 14 kilometers of route, with a fleet of 18 trains and serves the urban area by connecting the capital from north to south for more than 50,000 daily passengers. 
• This new contract includes train to ground communication, video surveillance and security systems. 
• The level of passenger safety will be improved thanks to the new broadband data connection system along the metro route and the "real-time" transmission of images from CCTV cameras.

Thales’ history with Brescia Metro goes a long way. The collaboration between Brescia Infrastructure Srl and Thales started in 2004. Thales brought its expertise in the maintenance of the systems to accompany the technological evolution of the infrastructure, ensuring an ever-increasing level of safety for passengers.

This long-term partnership has allowed Thales to meet additional needs expressed by the owner of the infrastructure and offer specific solutions: the existing architecture has been optimized to minimize the number of access points, while reducing energy consumption at the same time, and thus the environmental impact of maintenance activities.

The new contract recently signed with Thales to modernize Brescia Metro concerns train-to-ground broadband data communication solution. It includes more specifically the following Thales technologies: integrated CCTV encoder for digitizing analog video signals; a Wi-Fi link connecting the train to the ground through on-board equipment and trackside access-points, and a dedicated data network to connect the Wi-Fi access-point to the Operations Control Center. Thales also provides in the Control Center, the software platform for video surveillance and diagnostics purposes.

The new broadband communication system installed across the metro network allows near real-time transmission of image data from on-board CCTV cameras to the Control Center, and the capacity to share this video content with other security operators. The level of passenger security on board trains will therefore dramatically improve.

The activities have already started and work completion is scheduled for February 2022.

The Brescia Metro covers 17 stations plus 1 depot, 14 kilometers of route, with a fleet of 18 trains and serves the urban area by connecting the capital from north to south. In service since 2013, this alternative mobility infrastructure has a strong impact on the road system of the city and represents a fundamental pillar of the urban plan for sustainable mobility in Brescia.