National Driver Information and Control Systems
Serco has been running the major traffic monitoring and control system contract known as CITRAC/FEDICS since 1992. This contract led to the development by Serco of the Scottish National Driver Information and Control System (NADICS).
National Driver Information and Control System is Scotland’s national driver information and control system for the motorway network and provides interface to Glasgow’s local road network. This unique system combines the centrally integrated traffic control of the urban motorways throughout Glasgow, with the strategic traffic management and driver information for the majority of the Scottish trunk road network - with equipment located from Inverness to Gretna and from Edinburgh to Glasgow covering an approximate area of road network 200 miles north–south by 60 miles east-west.
NADICS is one of the largest traffic control system contracts in the world and is designed to both increase the throughput of traffic and improve safety on the road network, optimising the use of an already busy road infrastructure at lower environmental and financial cost than the construction of new roads. The system is operated from both central and regional Control Offices over local and wide area networks, either automatically or with intervention. It provides a number of co-ordinated incident detection and response mechanisms. These include automatic incident detection and sign setting, closed circuit television, emergency telephones, variable message signing, lane signalling and motorway on-ramp metering. The system allows the effective management of the roads system, while feeding information to the overhead signs on the motorway and the Traffic Scotland website.
While fully responsible for operating the system, Serco is working for the Scottish Government to develop a roadmap for the provision of travel information services and a methodology for enhancing NADICs – helping to deliver a future vision for the programme.