Caltrain is looking to curb suicides on it’s tracks by installing cameras. A total of 70 cameras will be mounted to the front and back of every train in an effort to record deaths and suspicious activity.

The transit system is expected to award the camera contract Thursday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The effort will be paid for by a $500,000 grant from a state bond.

So far this year, there’s been nine suicides on the tracks stretching from Gilroy to San Francisco. Last year, there were 11 reported.

Caltrain is adding 65 cameras to its trains this summer in order to keep track of everything that happens in its presence.

The digital video recording equipment will be added to all the locomotives and cab cars operated by Caltrain, on both the front and the back of each piece of equipment, Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said.

The cameras will only be placed outside the trains.

“This is a project we’ve been working on for a couple of years,” Christine Dunn said.

The Board of Directors that oversees Caltrain approved the purchase of the cameras in 2008, which is being paid for with grant money.

The cameras will operate 24 hours a day, and will be used as another tool in an investigation of any accidents or fatalities that happen on the Caltrain right-of-way, Dunn said.

“They’ll record everything that’s in front of them,” she said, which “will include trespassers on the right of way, anything that’s happening in the maintenance yard, vandalism, signals along the train tracks.”

Dunn said that despite recent speculation, the cameras are not being installed as a direct response to recent suicides on Caltrain tracks.