TMC in the UK: a progress report

The UK RDS-TMC Consortium is a private/public sector partnership set up to undertake a commercial demonstration of RDS-TMC (Radio Data System/Traffic Message Channel) in the UK. The demonstration is funded both from contributions from the EU and by the consortium. It has strong political backing, being an example of the innovation proposed in a UK Government White Paper to give drivers better travel information, both pre- and in-trip. The demonstration is to test the commercial market for an RDS-TMC service, to provide answers to questions on market size and take-up. The technology is already proven and is being successfully used across Europe in Holland, France, Germany and Sweden. An evaluation contract has now been let to ensure that the best possible information is gathered about customers´ requirements. We aim to roll out to a full national service following the demonstration