The department has alerted potential providers to its intention to create a £500k new modelling system to replace an incumbent tool that can take over a week to complete tasks
The Department for Transport is planning to build a new National Transport Analysis Platform to help provide policy experts with large-scale modelled scenarios powered by data.
The DfT is seeking to implement “an analytical platform that is robust, scalable, distributed, combining methods across analytical disciplines to produce analysis for national transport policies”.
In a newly published early-planning commercial notice, the department says that it “requires an end-to-end solution from transport modelling through appraisal analysis to visualisation of results”.
A full tender process is expected to take place later this spring, and the department expects to appoint a supplier to deliver the platform in July. The chosen firm will be appointed to an initial one-year contract worth almost £500,000.
Prospective providers are advised that a new analysis system is needed because the “scale and expectations of the use of analysis in policymaking has increased significantly and we are looking for a system to help us meet that analytical need, while remaining with the same staffing levels”.
The existing platform used for similar purposes – the national transport model – is comparatively slow and reliant on manual processes.
This system is comprised of “7,100 zones, 136,000 links, 46,000 nodes, five assigned user classes, three time periods, [and] route choice for the assigned demand segments – apart from buses that are a pre-load”.
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To help model projected demand for various transport types and routes “there are eight journey purposes, mode choice for six modes, and destination choice”.
The notice explains that using the existing model takes around a full working week to reach fruition. This includes a day “to set up and quality assure the inputs and assumptions”, then half a day to run modelling for light goods and heavy freight transport, and around a day and to complete projections for demand and highway capacity. It then takes “anything from half a day to two days to check the model results, and then a similar amount of time to generate presentation quality visualisations”, the notice says.
The document adds that most of these “stages have significant amounts of manual quality assurance, and manual data handling”.
The department advises suppliers “that all the internal manual handling and QA are in scope for being removed” via delivery of the new platform.
Potential providers will first be asked to take part in a short capability assessment. Those that are shortlisted for the second stage “will be invited to a supplier day to present their capability” and those whose presentation meets with the DfT’s approval will be asked to tender for the contract.
“A collaborative approach should be demonstrated which allows for requirements to be altered based on needs and risks which we expect to evolve through the discovery, proof of concept and pilot stages,” the planning notice says. “This allows for joint problem solving with prospective suppliers encouraging the latest industry best practices including use of technology.”
