Joint project sees new & upgraded infrastructure for bus operator and two neighbouring local authorities
Trapeze Group has won a major contract from the city of Brighton & Hove. Brighton & Hove City Council in partnership with the neighbouring local authority, East Sussex County Council, and the local bus operator, Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company (B&H), have awarded Trapeze a contract for supplying and installing an integrated ITCS operations control system. Furthermore, the two authorities have ordered additional bus stop displays for Brighton & Hove and East Sussex, and also entrusted Trapeze with updating the communications system.
Brighton & Hove’s fleet of almost 300 vehicles move more than 40 million passengers every year. The vehicles serve over 50 routes with more than 2,000 stops.
B&H has been a Trapeze customer for over 10 years and has owned an operations control system since 2001. This system was subsequently extended by sharing the radio and server infrastructure of East Sussex County Council, which was made available to other bus companies within the county administration.
The newest-generation Trapeze operations control system enables B&H to further enhance the efficiency of their entire bus fleet management. It also allows vehicles of other bus operators to be integrated in the control system in the future and allows for the number of bus stop displays for real-time information to be gradually increased.
In the next two years, Trapeze is to supply and install hardware and software for the ITCS Intelligent Transport System as well as mobile technologies. This includes a hardware and software upgrade to the advanced on-board computers for accurate position location of vehicles and for direct voice and data communications with the bus company’s control centre.
Also being renewed is the entire communications system between the control centre, the vehicles and the bus stop displays on the basis of GPRS/UMTS. For this purpose, the latest communications technology is to be used. The project launch is scheduled for November 1 and the entire period of execution is estimated at 14 months.
“The introduction of the new Trapeze system opens up additional fleet management and enhanced information possibilities for our passengers,” said Mike Best, Operations Director for Brighton & Hove.
