Maintenance of London Underground's new service control centres at Neasden and New Cross - responsible for controlling train operations on the Jubilee and East London Lines - has become the responsibility of Marconi Communications under a contract worth over £13 million.

Marconi Communications of Coventry will provide technical support and maintenance for brand new service control systems that will allow operators to control train movements on the lines. The contract will run for more than four years.

Neil Sutcliffe, Coventry-based managing director, Strategic Networks, Marconi Communications, said:

"This valuable contract is yet another of the new breed of long-term support relationships we are striking with public transport undertakings, tailored to the customer's precise requirements and delivered on a professional partnership basis. It further consolidates the company's position as a key maintenance contractor to London Underground, following the £15 million contract secured last Spring for maintenance of all communications equipment on the Jubilee and East London lines over five years. At the same time, the company has delivered new communications systems for improving safety and information on the upgraded Northern Line."

The strong relationship built during the mobilisation period of the Jubilee Line Communications Maintenance Contract has led to London Underground awarding the new contract. Marconi Communications objective is to assist London Underground in increasing operations availability of the systems and reducing the operational costs. This contract has the added advantage of a single contractor taking responsibility for both service control and communications maintenance, as well as for the many interfaces between the two systems.

This contract comes only a day after the company announced that it had purchased Telephone Manufacturers of South Africa (Pty) Ltd (TEMSA), the African continent's largest telephone producers. This acquisition, coupled with Marconi's majority shareholding in ATC (Pty) Ltd makes the company the premier supplier to a South African communications industry which is believed to be investing up to a £1.5b each year on equipment. The company also revealed that a subsidiary of ATC, Communications Accessories, had won a two-year contract with Telkom SA, the country's telecoms network operator, to supply half the total requirement for transmission networks equipment.

Marconi Communications is a world leader in smart broadband transmission and network integration. Based in the UK and Italy, it has sales to more than 140 countries and is wholly owned by GEC, a global manufacturer of intelligent electronic systems.

NOTES

The new contract is in partnership with Alcatel and a number of third parties, to maintain the signalling control system and other functions at the Neasden Service Control Centre, including remote local non-vital processors, the East London Line's New Cross Control Centre and remote interlocking sites, together with auxiliary systems such as fire alarms and access control (at Neasden). Marconi Communications holds separate contracts for maintaining communications systems for the same lines.

MORE INFORMATION:
Marconi Communications Press Office   0115 906 4687
   

©1995-2000 Coventry Internet Developments Ltd

This page modified on 10 November 2008 09:49:15AM