Councils in North East England receive funding to upgrade traffic management technology.

The UK Government has announced fund valued £3.64 million ($4.79 million) to upgrade the traffic management technology and improve journey times across the North East Combined Authority area (NECA). It will include upgrades to traffic signals on key regional routes with Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras, Variable Message Signs and integration with public transport data from Nexus. The Department of Transport paid £2.8 million ($3.6million) of the fund and the rest came from local authority contribu
October 27, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
The UK Government has announced fund valued £3.64 million ($4.79 million) to upgrade the traffic management technology and improve journey times across the North East Combined Authority area (NECA). It will include upgrades to traffic signals on key regional routes with Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras, Variable Message Signs and integration with public transport data from 2105 Nexus. The Department of Transport paid £2.8 million ($3.6million) of the fund and the rest came from local authority contributions.


The technology allows the camera to be monitored from the regional Urban Traffic Management Centre (1682 UTMC), allowing officers to adjust signal timings where necessary to improve traffic flow and provide better and reliable journey times to the travelling public.

Newcastle City Council submitted the funding bid on behalf of the North East Combined Authority for the expansion of the UTMC. It was one of 76 successful projects across the country to win a share of £244m ($186 million).

NECA is the seven councils which serve County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland.

Cllr Nick Forbes, Leader of Newcastle City Council and transport lead for the North East Combined Authority, said: “This funding is great news for commuters and business and will help cut journey times across the area. “We have a great facility here in the North East where we work together across the area to monitor the traffic network across local authority boundaries. This new investment means we can connect up traffic signals across key routes so we can smooth our traffic flows where we see congestion building up and adjust traffic signals right across the network to keep traffic moving at peak periods. “Providing reliable journey times and improving connectivity across the region is also a real benefit for our local economy as it helps people to access jobs and training and supports the efficient transport of goods.”

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • More maintenance contracts for Siemens
    November 8, 2012
    Siemens has agreed new traffic signal maintenance contracts with four highways authorities in the UK, increasing the company's service cover across the country. The contracts are already under way in Coventry, Nottingham and Warwickshire, and due to start in Solihull shortly. Based on a competitive schedule of rates for a combination of various customer requirements, the contracts will run for five years and cover the maintenance of more than 400 traffic signal junctions, traffic equipment at almost 550 ped
    Read More
  • Tyne and Wear Metro opts for Kapsch digital radio network
    June 23, 2014
    Having expanded its activities to the public transport sector, Kapsch CarrierCom’s public transport business unit has been successful in winning a US$13 million contract to implement a digital radio network based on the TETRA standard for Nexus, the strategic public transport body in the UK’s north-east. Based in Newcastle, Nexus owns and manages the Tyne and Wear Metro, which is used annually by 37 million passengers. The new digital radio system will be installed on the Metro’s fleet of 90 trains, repl
    Read More
  • Northern Futures: improvements for northern road and rail
    November 6, 2014
    As the Northern Futures Summit begins, UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announces better trains in the north to reduce overcrowding and cut journey times. More than 25 million people use cross-Pennine rail routes every year, and over a third of passengers have to stand during their commute. By 2025 the Deputy Prime Minister wants to see electrified cross-Pennine links between Liverpool and Manchester on one side and Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and Hull on the other. This will shorten journey times
    Read More
  • UK city upgrades urban traffic control
    July 5, 2012
    UK infrastructure services provider Amey, which works in partnership with Birmingham City Council to run the highways maintenance service in the city, has placed an order with Siemens for an upgrade to the latest PC Scoot urban traffic control (UTC) system. The existing analogue data transmission system will be replaced with the latest UTMC compliant UG405 outstations installed in tandem with a new internet protocol (IP) communications network on behalf of Amey as part of their UTMC upgrade project in Birmi
    Read More

Highlighted Content