World-leading software to keep London’s roads moving

29 August 2019
Transport for London has awarded a contract to Sopra Steria to develop a new control room system for managing its roads
"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 "
Glynn Barton
Director of Network Management, TfL
  • New software will present a richer picture of what is happening on the roads across London, taking in a lot more data about congestion, bus performance, weather and roadworks, to make it much easier for TfL to respond quickly to incidents and keep things moving
  • One of a number of upgrades planned over the coming years to help reduce road danger and tackle pollution and congestion on London's streets

Transport for London (TfL) has awarded a contract to Sopra Steria, a leading information technology company, to develop new software which will help TfL to tackle some of the biggest issues facing the capital, such as congestion and road danger.

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.

TfL will work closely with Sopra Steria to develop a new control centre system, which will give everybody managing the road network 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.

The ground breaking software will also be able to analyse multiple sources of information to generate rapid incident alerts for TfL staff, ensuring that vital information on incidents is quickly delivered to those who need it most, such as local councils, the emergency services and other organisations, as well as TfL's customers and companies providing routing advice to road users.

The new software, which will be owned by TfL and developed jointly with Sopra Steria, will enable TfL and other organisations to detect and respond to incidents more quickly and efficiently, reducing the road danger they can cause and helping to minimise their impact on congestion.

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:

'Our vision is to empower Government to make a difference to everyone, every day, through the services we design and deliver. 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.'

The new control centre system is part of TfL's wider strategy to transform the way it manages its road network. The Surface Intelligent Transport Systems (SITS) programme is using new technology to get the most out of the road network, increasing reliability and helping to reduce congestion. In June 2018, TfL awarded a contract to Siemens to develop and install new Real Time Optimiser (RTO) technology across London, which will dramatically improve TfL's ability to control its traffic lights in response to real life incidents and conditions.