Skip to main content

Telvent to implement light rail priority system in Morocco

In a contract valued at US$3.2 million, Telvent is to implement its SmartMobility Light Rail solution on the new light rail system that will connect the Moroccan cities of Rabat and Salé.
February 2, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

In a contract valued at US$3.2 million, 134 Telvent is to implement its SmartMobility Light Rail solution on the new light rail system that will connect the Moroccan cities of Rabat and Salé. Comprising a total of 32 stations along its 18 kilometre extension, the new light rail system is scheduled to begin operating by 2011.

SmartMobility will enable Rabat authorities to effectively coordinate interaction between the new light rail network and city traffic, with the capability to give priority at any time to light rail over private transportation in cases where it is considered to be suitable. This will help minimise light rail system delays and undue standstills, thereby enhancing city road safety levels.

The system to be installed by Telvent is based on selective light rail detection through simultaneous use of radio frequency and magnetic induction, which will permit the system to determine the point at which the light rail train is approaching an intersection. Once detected, the system will make the decision to give priority to the light rail train on the basis of actual traffic conditions, which the system will have determined through micro-regulation tools for intersection traffic that are based on artificial vision analysis systems.

Specifically, Telvent will develop and implement management software, in addition to traffic regulators and road and light rail signalling, based on LED-type technology, allowing energy savings of up to 70 per cent as against current technology.

Manuel Sanchez, Telvent’s chairman and CEO, comments, “Our solution will help the city of Rabat to coordinate the interaction between light rail and city traffic in an effective manner, delivering an unequivocal enhancement to urban mobility.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Flexibility, interoperability is key to future traffic management
    February 3, 2012
    Jon Taylor of Faber Maunsell and Tabatha Bailey of Transport for London describe how an unusual mix of traffic practitioners, researchers and industry are working together to build new tools for the future. As we face higher expectations for managing congestion from both citizens and politicians, and as more and more data is becoming available from new sources, our traffic management challenge is changing.
  • Priority for safety and interoperability, need for DSRC
    July 18, 2012
    Justin McNew, Chief Technology Officer, Kapsch TrafficCom Inc., USA offers his opinion of where 5.9GHz DSRC technology will head in the coming years. The debate ranges back and forth over the most suitable technological solution for future tolling and charging in the US. However, the coming trend is common cooperative infrastructure: instrumented roads and vehicles with the capacity to communicate with each other over all manner of safety, mobility and traveller applications, many of which will involve fina
  • Wireless traffic management reduces costs and commute times
    January 30, 2012
    The County of Los Angeles is widely known for having among the worst traffic problems and the most road congestion in the US. To combat these problems, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works decided to deploy a wireless communications system to connect over 1,000 of the most congested intersections so they could dynamically monitor and manage the congestion and reduce commute times.
  • Lighting Research Center – ‘not all lighting systems perform equally well’
    June 13, 2014
    The rapid development of lighting technologies, particularly solid-state systems using light emitting diodes (LEDs), has opened a universe of new possibilities as well as new questions about roadway lighting in the US, which for decades has been dominated by the use of high pressure sodium (HPS) lamps. Other light source technologies have also been angling for roadway market share. In response to a need for objective technical information about new types of roadway lighting among transportation agencies