MIDAS system development on the M25

In March 1994 the Department of Transport awarded a contract to Serco Systems to develop and supply a Motorway Incident Detection and Signalling (MIDAS) system for installation in Godstone and Heston Police Control Offices responsible for the south-west quadrant of the M25. The principles of MIDAS type systems had previously been trialled on the M1 Automatic Incident Detection system (AID) and the M4 (Autowarn) system and these led to the development of the standards of provision for MIDAS systems. The MIDAS system is based around the need to detect and transmit information about incidents on the motorway, to accurately analyse these and set appropriate signals as quickly as possible. This basic type of system (AID) had already been proven through implementation on the M1. In the early days of the MIDAS system design it was recognised that with roadside equipment getting smaller, more powerful and more reliable, combined with a high quality motorway communications network, it was both necessary, and possible, to transfer relatively large amounts of data on a regular basis from the roadside to the Control Office