Skip to main content

Manchester’s traffic signal upgrade completed

Siemens has completed a major upgrade of Manchester’s traffic signal system, with the replacement of a total of 52,000 traditional traffic signal bulbs with longer-lasting and energy saving LED lights across more than 1,800 sites, resulting in energy savings of US$1.26 million and maintenance savings in excess of US$505,000. The upgrade programme has reduced monthly energy usage from 1,000,000 KW/hr in March 2012 to 480,000 KW/hr in February 2014. The new traffic signals also benefit the environment thro
April 22, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
189 Siemens has completed a major upgrade of Manchester’s traffic signal system, with the replacement of a total of 52,000 traditional traffic signal bulbs with longer-lasting and energy saving LED lights across more than 1,800 sites, resulting in energy savings of US$1.26 million and maintenance savings in excess of US$505,000.

The upgrade programme has reduced monthly energy usage from 1,000,000 KW/hr in March 2012 to 480,000 KW/hr in February 2014. The new traffic signals also benefit the environment through being a more durable alternative to traditional bulbs, needing to be replaced every seven years on average, saving around 30,000 standard bulbs per year.

Councillor Andrew Fender, chair of the 817 Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) Committee, said: ‘This programme is the biggest of its kind in the country and is fantastic news for Greater Manchester. It’s another significant step towards a greener, more energy efficient transport network. The new LED lights come with less maintenance and lower running costs, and the money saved can be invested into other important transport projects and services that will keep Greater Manchester moving in the right direction.’

The traffic signal upgrade programme is part of a 15-year maintenance contract with TfGM and has taken two years to complete.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Transportation hub the centre of sustainable urban development
    November 21, 2012
    A marriage of transit, technology and culture is taking shape in Minneapolis, with ITS systems vital to hopes for a sustainable development centred on a hub of public transportation. Construction started in July this year on ‘The Interchange’ – a station in the Midwest US city of Minneapolis claimed as the most spectacular expression yet of the fast-spreading North American concept of transit-oriented development (TOD). Due for completion in 2014, the Interchange is designed as a multi-modal public transpor
  • Need for balance on UK speed enforcement funding cuts
    February 2, 2012
    Trevor Ellis, Chairman of the ITS UK Enforcement Interest Group, considers the implications of the UK Government's decision to withdraw funding for road safety camera partnerships
  • Counting the environmental costs of ITS deployment
    October 29, 2015
    David Crawford looks at the latest thinking about calculating the benefits associated with the environmental side of ITS schemes. The penny is dropping that some environmental costs “are being shifted outside the traditional bounds of evaluation methods” for ITS-based road transport projects, according to researchers at the UK University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies.
  • Low-costs solutions to improve pedestrian safety
    May 8, 2015
    David Crawford welcomes low-cost safety initiatives for pedestrians in America. Some 10 people die each week in accidents on crosswalks in the US, that’s more than 10% of all pedestrian fatalities in road traffic incidents - the number of which is running at a five-year high. Ensuring crosswalks are safe is key in supporting the growing enthusiasm for walking as a travel mode. In the last decade of the 20th century, numbers walking to work in the US fell by 26%; while, as recently as 2012, Americans were e