Underground workers aided by mapping devices

Tube Lines invests in GIS

Tube Lines, the public-private partnership that maintains a number of London Underground lines, plans to extend its use of geographical information systems (GIS) to improve engineering works.

The organisation, which runs the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, is planning to provide trackside engineers and contractors with GIS mapping on handheld devices, so they can access more quickly information on location, condition and maintenance history of any given asset.

Tube Lines will extend its use of Intergraph’s Geomedia products, which are already used elsewhere in the organisation. It wants to appoint a software development company to make the system accessible on handheld devices at the trackside.

The application will provide engineers with a link to Tube Lines’ asset register and management systems, which hold data on hundreds of thousands of assets, including train parts, tracks and station fittings.

‘It will show engineers where each asset is on the railway. It will make a huge difference in terms of getting to the right place quicker. People will know where they are and what is around them,’ said a spokesman for Tube Lines.

‘With the help of technology we’re looking to lead the Underground from the Victorian era into the 21st century,’ he said.