Highways Agency
Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers
Overview
The National Traffic Control Centre is the hub of the English motorway network. It is one of the key ways in which the Highways Agency is delivering its strategic aims of “safe roads, reliable journeys and informed travellers.” It is our source of real-time traffic information.
The state-of-the-art, £160m centre is based adjacent to junction 3 of the M5 at Quinton near Birmingham. It was officially opened by the then Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling on the 30 March 2006. The National Traffic Control Centre was set up under the government’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme. This means a private contractor, Traffic Information Services (TiS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Serco Integrated Transport has responsibility for delivery against pre-agreed objectives in exchange for agreed sums of money.
The main objectives of the National Traffic Control Centre are:
- Providing accurate real-time traffic information to the public using a number of different methods
- Minimising the congestion caused by incidents, roadworks and events taking place near the motorway and trunk road network
- Providing information on diversions to help motorists avoid the queues
In order to achieve these objectives, we collect information from many different sources, analyse it and then disseminate it to the public in a number of different ways. This process is explained further over the next few pages.
Collection of Traffic Information
We collect information from a variety of different sources, both human and technology-based.
These include information from electronic loops in the road and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras as well as information gained from our 250 operational partners.
Traffic Flow Monitoring Equipment
You will be able to spot our traffic monitoring stations when you are driving around the motorway and trunk road network. Many of them are olive green poles with a square base and a rectangular flat panel on the top.
The flat panel on the top is a solar panel which provides the electricity to power the monitoring station. There are over 1500 of these across the country. As vehicles pass the monitoring station, the electronic sensors buried underneath the road measure the average speed and flow of the traffic. This information is then transmitted back to the National Traffic Control Centre at five minute intervals using digital mobile technology.
This dedicated monitoring system is also supported by MIDAS (Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling) which is used to detect queues on the most heavily used sections of motorway and warn drivers using variable message signs.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras
We also use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras to help monitor average journey times. We have over 1000 ANPR cameras at 480 key locations across England. When you go past the cameras, your number plate is logged and then changed into an electronic tag. By matching these tags as you pass other cameras, we can see how long it is taking you to get from one location to another. This helps us quickly identify congestion.
We use the electronic tagging system so we cannot identify individual vehicles or vehicle owners. At no stage during the process do we have your number plate and all information is deleted after a few hours.
The ANPR cameras are painted bright green and are usually mounted on bridges or on poles at the side of the road. They use infra-red illumination technology so we can make full use of them, even at night, or when weather conditions are poor.
Operational Partners
We work with over 250 different organisations to help co-ordinate traffic information across the country. Our primary sources of information about incidents are our own Regional Control Centres, our contractors out on the road and the Police. We also have detailed agreements with 116 local authorities to ensure we are aware of any local roadworks that may affect your journey on our roads. We also work with major traffic generators such as ports, airports, entertainment venues, football clubs and shopping centres so that we can give you early warnings of any major events that may delay your journey.
We have a partnership with the Met Office which allows us to plan ahead when bad weather is expected and helps us provide you with travel advice.
The National Traffic Control Centre collects a huge amount of data from the sources detailed above. We have six months’ worth of data available at any time. This amounts to more than two terabytes of data – the equivalent of 2000 copies of the Encyclopaedia Britannica or 32 days of continuous running DVD movies. The next page shows how we disseminate this information to you in the form of useful traffic information.
Dissemination of Traffic Information
The data collected by the National Traffic Control Centre is analysed by highly trained operators, who then pass it on to those people interested in road conditions.
They do this using a number of tools:
- Travel media
- Variable Message Signs
- Traffic England website
- Interactive telephone service
- Highways Agency Information Line
- Highways Agency Information Points
- Traffic Radio
Travel Media
We pass the latest traffic information to the travel media by e-mail, telephone or via other technical links such as traffic feeds. During incidents we often supplement this information by conducting interviews on local radio stations to help keep you up to date.
Traffic England
Traffic England is our interactive traffic information service. You can access the latest traffic information and find out what is currently being displayed on the variable message signs before you leave. You can use the information on Traffic England to plan your journey and avoid the queues.
You can also get the information from our interactive telephone service by typing in the name of the road you are interested in on your telephone keypad or selecting it using the voice recognition system.
Give it a try by calling 08700 660 115.
Highways Agency Information Line
The National Traffic Control Centre is also home to the Highways Agency Information Line. This service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help you with enquiries about any part of Highways Agency business. This could be a question about a new road scheme near your home or place of work, an enquiry about the role of our traffic officers, or simply a request for a copy of one of our leaflets.
Call us on 08457 50 40 30.
Incidents
The NTCC has a key role to play when there is an incident on the road network. There are two main types; unplanned incidents and planned events.
A planned event could include roadworks, a movement of an abnormal load, a road closure or a major event that will attract traffic, such as a concert or sporting event. We do our best to inform you of the likely impact of the event using some of the tools described above.
An unplanned incident is usually an accident, or something blocking the road such as debris, animals or spillages. Whilst our Traffic Officers and Incident Support Units are clearing the road, the operators at the National Traffic Control Centre are working to inform motorists of the latest traffic conditions.