£60 mln contract to Siemens by Transport for London

Munich, Germany – Siemens has been awarded a £60 million (EUR88 million) contract by Transport for London (TfL) to run until 2016. The contract is to provide camera and automatic number plate reading enforcement infrastructure for the western extension of the Central London Congestion Charging Scheme. Siemens Traffic Controls will supply, operate and maintain the system, which involves the installation of over 850 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras at 127 sites. The cameras will capture details of an estimated 1 million number plates every day.

Representing a considerable step forward over existing technology, the Siemens solution, incorporating technology from Roke Manor Research Ltd and PIPS Technology Ltd, will process vehicle number plate information at the roadside, reducing both the communications bandwidth required and the cost of the communications infrastructure.

The Western Extension Zone project will see London’s current congestion charge area extended in a westerly direction into Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea. Work will now begin on the new scheme which is scheduled to be effective from February 2007. Siemens will operate and maintain the enforcement infrastructure until 2016.

Siemens Traffic Controls managing director David Carter said: “Siemens has been associated with the supply of traffic technology and services in London for many years, and we are delighted to be working with TfL on such a prestigious project. We are confident our proven technology and technical expertise will contribute towards the successful development of the scheme, and will further help Transport for London with their on-going efforts to reduce congestion in the capital.”

As part of the Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S) group, Siemens Traffic Controls designs, manufactures, installs and maintains a wide range of traffic engineering products and systems to enhance road safety and improve traffic flow in congested urban and inter-urban areas. In the United Kingdom, the company installs and maintains more traffic infrastructure than any other company and has 700 employees including 350 skilled service engineers dedicated every day of the year to maintaining over half of all traffic control equipment installed on the UK road network.

Further information under: www.siemens.com/traffic