Traffic control open systems: a working national system

This paper broadly charts the conversion from the first UK National Motorway Communications System (NMCSI) to a second generation system (NMCS2) with instations now based on the GOSIP open systems architecture. It covers the procurement and implementation strategies adopted and provides an insight to the experience gained from managing complex parallel developments in a real-time traffic control environment. Consideration is given to the value for money approach taken to the purchase of control offices and the savings made.