National Traffic Information Service (NTIS) 2021+

Description

The new National Traffic Information Service will: (a) collect, process, validate and analyse traffic data and traffic event information from multiple data sources including third party in-vehicle data and over 10 000 roadside sensors; (b) collate and disseminate traffic information and travel advice to Highways England's customers on Highways England's roadside variable message signs; the service's websites (www.trafficengland.com and https://m.highwaysengland.co.uk) and mobile telephone applications ; and data feed application programming interfaces (APIs); (c) collect historic traffic data for use in strategic road network planning and the design of road improvement schemes; (d) help Highways England's Regional Operations Centres (ROCs); National Network Managers and National Incident Liaison Officers; and Customer Contact Centre (CCC) to understand and mitigate the impacts of planned and unplanned traffic events on the NTIS network; and (e) help Highways England to meet its 'improving safety for all,' 'fast and reliable journeys,' 'meeting the needs of all users' and environmental performance outcomes; measure the associated performance indicators; and meet its licence obligation to provide traffic information to its customers. These outcomes are further described in the procurement documents. The key services in the contract for the new National Traffic Information Service include: (a) managing the transition from the current National Traffic Information Service to the new National Traffic Information Service contract over a period of up to four and a half months; (b) operating the transitioned service for up to two years whilst completing a transformation of the service in line with the contract requirements (the transformation can be on an incremental basis); (c) operating the transformed service for the remainder of the contract period; and (d) subject to the agreement of changes with Highways England, making further incremental improvements to the transformed service to accommodate continual improvement, innovation proposals and evolving customer needs. The initial contract duration will be five years, inclusive of transition, with Highways England having the option to extend the Contract by an aggregate duration of up to an additional two years The selected service provider's transition and transformation of the National Traffic Information Service will deliver outcomes including : (a) Highways England's home safe and well vision enacted in the provision of the service; (b) a smooth transition between the current NTIS contract and the new NTIS contract, with no disruption to delivery of the service outputs that Highways England's customers rely upon; (c) for both the transitioned and transformed service, improved collaboration and more efficient communications with the Highways England teams in the National Traffic Information Centre (NTIC) in Quinton, Birmingham, and in Regional Operations Centres (ROCs); (d) a smooth cut-over (or cut-overs in the event of an incremental transformation) between the transitioned services and the transformed services being delivered during the new contract, with no disruption to delivery of the outputs that Highways England's customers rely upon; (e) from transformation: (i) improved availability and reliability of traffic data and information for Highways England's customers and internal business functions; and (ii) an adaptable and scalable IT system that will enable Highways England to meet its evolving traffic information needs and makes best use of automation to streamline the need for manual intervention; and (f) removal of under-used traffic data sources, including automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), and under-used output channels such as event emails.