TfL spends £9m on Congestion Charge tech

Transport for London (TfL) is to spend £9m on new enforcement technology following official approval for the controversial extension to the Congestion Charge zone.

London mayor Ken Livingston gave the go ahead last week for the Congestion Charge zone to be extended to motorists in Kensington and Chelsea from February 2007.

As part of the extension, Easynet has won a £9m contract to provide a secure data network for transmitting digital images captured by the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to a central enforcement facility.

This will mark a change in how the charge is currently enforced. The existing Congestion Charge uses analogue video cameras situated at sites on and within the boundary of the charging zone linked to a central site via fibre optic cabling. That contract is held by BT, Colt and Initial Electronic Security Systems.

ANPR software at the central site is used to capture images of vehicles entering the zone and identify their number plate and this image is then used for enforcement of the charge.

To take advantage of advances in technology and reduce communications costs for the extended charging zone TfL plans to carry out the ANPR function digitally at the roadside with the evidential records transmitted over low-cost cabled networks to the central processing facility.

TfL is also looking at other enforcement technologies for the Congestion Charge scheme, including the possible use of RFID tags when it does a technology refresh in 2008.