The €32m contract, awarded through an international public tender, specifies that Indra will be responsible for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of both the TMS and the NTCC, which will be based at Dublin Heuston station. The company will also be responsible for training facilities, such as a signal simulator, and the provision of a backup control centre at a secondary location. In addition, Indra will provide maintenance for all equipment for 15 years, with an option to extend to 20 years.
The NTCC, which was approved in 2019, will be implemented using funding from the Irish National Transport Authority, as part of the Irish government’s ‘Project Ireland’ 2040 infrastructure strategy. When completed in 2021, the NTCC will offer a huge improvement on the existing Central Transport Control centre (CTC) which has operated at Dublin Connolly station since the 1970s.
Due to the aging CTC’s capacity limitations, upgrades to the rail network’s track, signalling and communications infrastructure have been hampered, with only 75% of the nation’s network being integrated. The remainder is controlled from a series of small, local sites scattered across the country. It is hoped that the new system will make rail traffic management safer and more efficient, as well as improving passenger service and the availability of public information.
The TMS, based on Indra’s Mova Traffic TMS, will integrate regulation systems, an automatic router, communications, network management, a control panel and remote monitoring. The system is also capable of additional modifications to allow IoT connectivity, artificial intelligence and data analysis functionality.
