Electronic information services

Tender description

The traffic information service collects, processes and disseminates real-time traffic data and information relating to the 4 300 miles of motorways and major A roads for which Highways England is responsible. The service provides information to help our customers plan their journeys and avoid delays. Historic data recorded by the service is used to help plan and evaluate development of the strategic road network. Procurement of the new traffic information service will include the continued operation of the existing service for a period of up to 2 years while the selected supplier renews and transforms the underlying information technology (IT) system to provide a modern, cloud-based equivalent that is fit for the future. On completion of transformation, the supplier will operate the service to achieve the required performance levels for a further period of 3 years. During the contract period, Highways England may require further incremental improvements to the service. The current second-generation national traffic information service has been developed since 2011. The 24/7/365 service includes: — an IT platform with infrastructure at Highways England’s premises in Quinton, Birmingham and disaster recovery hosting at premises in Slough, — access to Highways England’s network of traffic sensors, CCTV, variable message signs and operational systems for incidents, roadworks, severe weather, major entertainment events and abnormal loads, — floating vehicle data bought in as software-as-a-service (SaaS), — a road network and asset model, — a user interface, websites (www.trafficengland.com and https://m.highwaysengland.co.uk), app and DATEX II feeds, — a back office technology support, performance and traffic engineering team, — a front office information centre team. Highways England currently envisages that a single contract will be used to procure the third-generation National Traffic Information Service (NTIS) and that the selected supplier will be required to provide IT services including: — service and system design and implementation, — service transition, — service operation, and — continual service improvement. The traffic information service will continue on a 24/7/365 basis to: — collect, process and analyse traffic data and events from multiple data sources including floating vehicle data and over 10 000 roadside sensors, — collate and disseminate traffic information and travel advice to Highways England’s customers on Highways England’s variable message signs; the service’s websites and app; the DATEX II feeds and via other third party media, — store historic traffic data for use in strategic road network planning and the design of road improvement schemes, — support Highways England’s Regional Operations Centres (ROCs), strategic traffic operations team and the Customer Contact Centre (CCC) to understand and mitigate the impacts of planned and unplanned traffic events, and — help Highways England to meet its ‘improving safety for all,’ ‘fast and reliable journeys,’ ‘meeting the needs of all users’ and environmental performance outcomes; measure the associated performance indicators; and meet its licence obligation to provide traffic information our customers. Service and system design and implementation over a 2-year period from May 2021 are expected to deliver the following transformation outcomes: — improved availability and accessibility of traffic data and information to Highways England’s customers and internal business functions, — a flexible and scalable cloud-based IT system that aligns to the UK Government’s Technology Code of Practice and makes best use of automation to improve efficiency of the service, — improved collaboration with Highways England’s Regional Operations Centres (ROCs), strategic traffic operations team and the Customer Contact Centre (CCC), and — removal of unused traffic data sources, including automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), and under-used output channels such as event emails.