Strategy
Capgemini Invent partnered with Britain’s rail industry to create its first unified Visual Safety and Security Systems strategy, turning a fragmented estate into an endorsed, investable roadmap for a safer, smarter and more resilient railway.
Keeping the UK’s railways safe and secure depends on Visual Safety and Security Systems (VSS) that have developed piecemeal over decades. Responsibility is split between Network Rail, British Transport Police, train, freight and rolling-stock operators, and other infrastructure owners and governance bodies, with inconsistent standards, incompatible systems and different ownership models.
This limits the live-viewing and sharing of CCTV footage and other data, slows incident response and weakens decision-making, hampering public safety efforts. In 2024/25, there were 293 suicides or suspected suicides on the railway, and more than 2,284 suicide interventions. Better VSS aids in detection and prevention of such incidents, as well as others such as sexual assault, violence or track trespass. Increased safety also reduces impacts on rail operations and associated costs.
Network Rail commissioned Capgemini Invent to take on a challenge no rail body could manage alone: creating an industry-wide strategy, quantifying the value of change, defining a transition path for a unified technical architecture and transformation activities, and building support for implementation. We provided leadership and multidisciplinary expertise to reconcile conflicting priorities, within and across organisations.
The result was the first genuinely cross-industry VSS strategy for Britain’s rail network. It secured industry-wide endorsement and praise, supported the approval of phase-one funding for related industry VSS improvements, moved to implementation planning and is now being governed through sector bodies. The strategy also established a quantified investment case, including estimated annual savings of up to £36 million on safety and delay-related costs and lower operating expenditure. It created a practical route from fragmented infrastructure to a safer, more connected railway, also supporting the transition to a single national entity, Great British Railways.
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