Tattile: Toll tunnels under Liverpool’s Mersey River receive Pay by Plate update
Tattile: Toll tunnels under Liverpool’s Mersey River receive Pay by Plate update
With over 70,000 journeys a day, the Kingsway (Wallasey) and Queensway (Birkenhead) auto traffic tunnels running under Mersey River are critical to the social and economic wellbeing of the greater Liverpool area in the United Kingdom. In recognizing that continued investment is needed to keep the tunnels running efficiently and safely, tunnel operator Merseytravel decided to replace the existing DSRC system, which was built on antennas and tags, with a modern video-tolling solution based on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR).
Introducing this cutting-edge technology is part of the wider Merseytravel vision to make transport services easier for people to use.
Starting in November 2021, the new system called ‘T-FLOW’ has modernized the way tunnel users pre-pay for their journeys. ‘T-FLOW’ uses in total 37 Tattile Vega Basic short-range ALPR/ANPR cameras which are installed on each lane on both tolling plazas: 16 on Wallasey and 21 on Birkenhead. The Vega Basic traffic monitoring cameras read vehicle number plates and activate the payment process if the license plates are registered to an account.
Once payment has been approved, the barrier will rise, enabling the most convenient and efficient tolling experience for all drivers who registered for the new payment process. According to the operator, new customers to the T-FLOW system will be able to use the system within 30 minutes after registering.