Staff smartcards to track tube work

London Underground is to issue more than 30,000 staff with smartcards to improve safety and allocate resources more effectively when conducting tube repairs.

The project, which could use biometrics to authenticate maintenance staff and contractors, will be rolled out across some 300 London Underground sites, including stations, depots and equipment buildings.

Employees carrying out trackside inspections, maintenance and refurbishments will have to use the smartcards as a means of physical identification and to record their location.

The cards will store information about the employee, including their qualifications, contact details, hours worked and eligibility to work on specific projects.

Tube Lines, the public-private partnership (PPP) responsible for upgrading the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, is running the procurement process for London Underground and fellow PPP contractor Metronet.

'There's an issue with safety-critical working and legislation such as the working time regulation,' said Tom Healy, Tube Lines' strategy manager for health, safety, quality and the environment.

'We need a system to flag up to us when a repair worker has gone over their number of hours.'

Tube Lines has set a time limit of two months for IT firms to tender for the contract. The successful bidder will gain responsibility for the design and management of the Integrated Site Access and Competency Compliance system.

The smartcard scheme will replace paper-based clocking-on and staff record systems, allowing managers to search for and locate skilled workers for any emergency repairs.

'We may have a welder available somewhere on-site or at another station, but with the paper-based system it's difficult to know,' said Healy.

'With a smartcard system we will be able to see when an individual's skills need reviewing, and there's the added safety of immediately knowing that someone has definitely left the site.'

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