Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

The Operational Partners

Technology for Travel Information Exchange

The TCC Company will implement an internet-based Travel Information Highway (TIH) to provide a market for traffic information and data and allow open exchange of data on the transport network. Users will form a Travel Information Community, including members from the Police Service, local highway authorities, public transport operators (e.g. rail, bus), information service providers and the media.

Value-Added Service Providers (VASPs) will be able to obtain data via the TIH and process it ("add value") to make it more accessible to users, with the opportunity to provide additional or enhanced services (e.g. route planning). They will also support a wide range of delivery mechanisms including the world wide web, mobile phones, WAP and Digital Audio Broadcasting

The Operational Partners

The Agency recognises that in order to deliver quality information services, there has to be effective coordination between transport organisations at both the national and local level. The TCC Project has therefore been planned to take account of a number of key stakeholders that the TCC Company will be tasked with establishing operating partnerships.

Highways Agency

The Agency will provide guidance to the TCC Company to ensure traffic management decisions and advice given to travellers are consistent with the Agency's strategy for managing and maintaining the strategic road network. The Agency will closely monitor the performance of the TCC Company to ensure a high quality and efficiently operated service.

Police Service

A network of local police control offices is responsible for safety and incident management on England's road. The TCC Company will work in close cooperation with the police to agree procedures with each police control office on how to obtain information about the location and nature of incidents. The Police Service will retain responsibility for traffic management and safety measures in the immediate vicinity of an incident on the strategic road network; the TCC Company will support the Police Service and provide information and re-routing advice to drivers to minimise disruption to long-distance journeys.

Local Highway Authorities

Local highway authorities are responsible for managing the non-strategic road network (local and regionally important roads) in their areas. The TCC Company will work closely with them to determine how traffic is managed at the boundary between local and national roads. Given that the majority of journeys begin and end on local roads, it will be important for the TCC Company to work together with local highway authorities to provide a "seamless" service to road users.

Other Highway Authorities and Network Operators

Some nationally important routes include roads that are the responsibility of other organisations (e.g. Dartford River Crossing, Civil Aviation Authority, Dover Port Authority). The TCC Company will establish relationships with these organisations for the exchange of traffic condition information and agreement of traffic management strategies. Cross-border interfaces will also be established with similar projects in Wales and Scotland.

Media and Information Service Providers

Media (radio, TV) and information 'Value-Added' Service Providers (VASPs) (e.g. firms providing services over the Internet, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or dedicated in-car devices such as RDS-TMC)[Radio Data System - Traffic Message Channel] deliver specialised information, either for a fee or as part of a wider commercial service. The TCC Company will provide up-to-the-minute information to these organisations and will establish a Travel Information Highway (TIH) to allow all operational partners to exchange information quickly and easily to each other and to VASPs. The TIH will allow for the full exchange of information of a known quality between participating organisations. All VASPs requiring information from the TCC Company will have an equal opportunity to participate. As part of its requirement to provide public information services, the TCC Company will supply some non value-added information free-of-charge to the media.