Strathclyde Passenger Transport - Wireless Case Study

Over the past 31 years, Strathclyde Passenger Transport has developed a reputation for delivering one of the most integrated and developed public transport networks in the UK. SPT invests in rail, bus, subway and ferry services for 42% of the nation’s population and every year joins up 120 million journeys in Scotland.

incovo first became involved with SPT when they had a requirement for LAN access and reliable communications at a new building located in Hamilton. Staff were migrating from temporary accommodation at the bus station to a new office approximately 100 metres away. SPT wanted staff at this new location to have full access to the feature set of the current telephone exchange such as use of digital extension numbers and being able to make calls within SPT offices at no charge.

There was also a desire to enable flexible communications that covered both office and bus station and allowed some consolidation of the current mixed systems such as fixed phones, mobiles, pagers and Band 3 PMR.

After a detailed consultation and project planning period incovo agreed a design allowing SPT staff to use SpectraLink Wireless Handsets for voice communications. The handsets would operate through Wireless Access Points within the office which were connected back to a switch and router that interfaced with SPT’s head office at West George Street via 2Mb/s leased line.

Coverage was extended over the bus station area with the implementation of a wireless bridge between the office and the bus station. The bridge housed another access point that provided network coverage to the entire bus station. The result is staff can move freely within the office and bus station area without losing coverage of the SPT communications network.

Derek Arbuckle, Communications Manager of SPT had this to say of incovo’s role; “incovo acted as the main technical design authority and systems integrator throughout the project. Their flexible and innovative approach has been of massive benefit - as has their expertise with regards to the provision, installation and commissioning of the hardware.”