Tait Signs Contract for DMR with Transport for London

Tait Communications and Transport for London (TfL) signed a contract for the replacement of London’s bus radio system with a new Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) system. The agreement will see Tait manufacture and replace both the communications infrastructure providing coverage across Greater London and the terminal equipment on London’s fleet of almost 10,000 buses.

The upgrade is one element of TfL’s investment to extend and improve the British capital’s transport network. Every day, more than 31 million journeys are made across its public transport and main road networks.

Tait designed the upgraded system to be both resilient and future proof, with multiple fallback features. The on-bus equipment is based on Tait’s UnifyVehicle platform, which gives users access to multiple carrier standards in addition to mobile radio and the ability to run customized data applications to improve operational efficiency and the service provided to travellers.

“In over 20 years in this industry, this has been one of the toughest and most robust processes I’ve worked on,” said Andrew Gill, managing director of Tait Europe Middle East and Africa. “At its core was TfL’s wish to foster a spirit of collaborative working with key suppliers, and it’s this spirit which has allowed a mid-sized company to compete successfully against much larger competition.”

TfL’s bus network consists of more than 650 contracted bus routes served by over 9,500 vehicles with a network of 19,000 bus stops.

“We have been careful to choose a solution that provides a low-risk transition from the existing analog technology and integrates well with the future vision of TfL with open standards-based DMR technology and ease of integration with an accredited IT for public transport (ITxPT) supplier,” said Simon Reed, TfL’s head of technology and data, surface transport.