Highways Agency signs traffic information deal

The Highways Agency has signed a seven year, £57m contract for a National Traffic Information Service to become available on 1 September 2011. The National Traffic Information Service, which will cover motorways and A roads, will replace the traffic and data processing elements of the existing National Traffic Control Centre contract. The agency said it will provide a more efficient service than the old deal. Network Information Services, a joint venture between Mouchel and Thales UK, won the contract. The agency said the new service will maintain its capability to: collect data about traffic, planned and current events; process the data to provide real time national view of traffic conditions; assess the impact of events and traffic flows and create diversions through dynamic signing; provide real time information to the traffic news media; and obtain information for itself and others to assess the performance of the road network. It will also publish traffic and event information through its website (this will move to Directgov in the future), electronic roadside signs, the Atlas service for business and media users, mobile devices, and data feeds that can be re-used by services such as Google maps. Roads minister Mike Penning said: "I welcome the award of this new contract which will deliver considerable savings while still providing the information services for drivers using motorways and other major roads in England. "The National Traffic Information Service is central to the Highways Agency's role of managing traffic and making the most efficient use of the existing network. Timely and accurate traffic information helps both private and commercial road users to plan their journeys, avoiding delays and congestion that add to the cost of journeys." This article is published by Guardian Professional. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.