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CTA approves Senseonics fiber-optic pilot to detect right-of-way intrusions
Summary
The board placed a Senseonics right-of-way intrusion pilot on the omnibus: a fiber-optic sensor system to run over about 3 miles of track, costing up to $110,000, to detect vibrations and distinguish trains from people or objects; staff will measure false-positive rate, response time and uptime during the pilot before broader deployment.
CTA's Innovation Studio presented a pilot agreement with Senseonics US Inc. to test a fiber-optic sensor and edge-compute system that detects right-of-way intrusions along roughly 3 miles of track.
Molly Poppy explained the system uses fiber-optic vibrations and an edge device with a model trained to distinguish trains from people or other objects. The pilot cost was presented as an up-to amount of $110,000, split into two milestone payments, with initial installation and training (about six weeks), eight weeks of fine-tuning and 14 weeks of operations and false-positive tracking with CTA's control center.
Board members pressed on metrics of success, including false-positive rates, response time and possible integrations (audio alerts, wayside lighting, operator alerts or power cut in future phases). Poppy said the intent is to compare this sensor-based approach against camera- and AI-based detectors CTA is testing elsewhere, and to assess which interventions yield the best operational outcomes for safety and reduced service disruptions. The item was placed on the omnibus for board approval.
