London Underground is Europe's largest metro system, handling over 1 billion passengers per year. Thales provides long-term maintenance services for London Underground's communications network, Connect, to ensure it remains operational 24/7. Thales monitors Connect from its Network Management Centre, addressing any issues remotely or by sending response teams, and has implemented over 1,300 system updates during its 20-year contract.

1. services case study
LONDON UNDERGROUND
London Underground is Europe’s biggest
metro system. It’s also one of the world’s
busiest, handling more than a billion pas-
sengers a year. The 400km Underground
network – the Tube – is vital not only to
London’s economy, but also to the wider
UK economy as well.
CUSTOMER NEEDS
Communications are the bedrock of safe, efficient
operations. On the London Underground, they’re
provided by the Connect system, delivered by Thales
and its partners in the Citylink consortium. Connect
carries voice and data, radio and video. Airwave, the
digital radio system for the police and emergency
services, also uses the Connect backbone.
THALES SERVICES
Thales’ long-term maintenance services ensure that
London Underground’s communications network
remains operational around the clock, with depend-
able coverage throughout the working day and also
during night-time engineering hours. Connect is being
delivered as a twenty-year PFI (private finance initia-
tive) contract which, in tandem with Airwave, runs
until 2019.
Services in perspective
Maintenance is based on stringent service levels that
are designed to ensure maximum network availability.
The process is supported by a programme of both
preventive and corrective measures, with regular
inspections and coverage checks to verify the integ-
rity of the system.
24/7 coverage
The Connect network is supervised by Thales’
Network Management Centre at Waterloo. From
here, Thales’ personnel are able to monitor the health
of the radio system – essential for maintaining train
operations – and the video network. Alarms are
generated automatically if a problem is detected.
Failures are either rectified remotely, or attended
on location by mobile response teams. All faulting
and maintenance is carried out by Thales’ 70-strong
engineering workforce.
Maintaining standards
Thales is also responsible for maintaining the perfor-
mance of Connect throughout the life of the contract,
including work to ‘refresh’ the system. The ability to
accommodate continuous change is critical as the
railway grows and evolves. Since the award of the
PFI contract in 1999, Thales has implemented more
than 1,300 variations to the Connect system.
CUSTOMER BENEFITS
• Peace of mind – with the provision of a fully trained
and safety-certified workforce
• Flexibility – the ability to accommodate
continuous change through contract variations
• Multi-agency liaison – Thales’ Network
Management Centre collaborates with Airwave,
which is independently managed, if faults are
detected on the emergency radio system
www.thalesgroup.com/transportation

2. london
underground
Thales services for transport
Providing you with supplier assistance and support
throughout the lifetime of your transportation system