Transport for London (TfL) has awarded a contract worth up to £6.5m to develop 'world leading' traffic control centre software more capable of handling the wide range of data on the modern road network.
Sopra Steria, a leading information technology company, will work with TfL to develop the control centre system providing a 'single, unified view of everything happening on the network, including up-to-the minute details of all known incidents and the actions being taken'.
It will develop software that can analyse multiple sources of information to generate rapid incident alerts to enable quicker detect and response to incidents.
The software will be owned by TfL and developed jointly with Sopra Steria.
Glynn Barton, TfL’s director of network management, said: 'We’re working to completely overhaul the way we manage London’s road network as we tackle some of the biggest challenges our growing city faces, such as poor air quality, road danger and congestion.
'Our world-leading work with Sopra Steria will enable us to respond to incidents on the roads much more quickly, keeping the roads safe and clear and helping to keep London moving.'
Adrian Fieldhouse, Sopra Steria’s managing director for Government, said: 'The new control room system will make use of rich data to enable TfL to keep citizens and visitors alike safe and on the move through the city’s road network.'
TfL's wider Surface Intelligent Transport Systems (SITS) programme is using new technology to increase reliability and reduce congestion.
In June 2018, TfL awarded a contract to Siemens to develop and install new Real Time Optimiser (RTO) technology across London to improve TfL’s ability to control its traffic lights in response to real-life incidents and conditions.
TfL is responsible for managing the 580km of the capital’s busiest roads, as well as managing a number of other vital assets such as London’s 6,000 traffic lights, its tunnels and some of its bridges.
