Why standards matter: Revisiting the TOPAS debate

The announcement that Traffic Open Products and Specifications Ltd (TOPAS) is to close because its current funding arrangements are no longer sustainable puts a new perspective on a Highways Voices discussion first broadcast in February.

TOPAS was established as an independent, not-for-profit organisation following the removal of DfT Type Approval, maintaining specifications and registering products used across the UK’s traffic control sector. Its Management Board has now agreed to close the organisation, although it is expected to continue operating until the second quarter of 2028 to enable existing product developments and registration applications to be completed.

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Against that background, we are republishing our conversation with TOPAS’s Kealie Franklin, Martin Andrews, Services Director at Yunex Traffic, Rob Harding, Engineering Manager for Telent’s traffic business, and SWARCO’s Head of Product and Solutions, Derek McLean.

The podcast, itself prompted by an opinion piece about standards, provides useful context to the discussions the industry will now have about the future. The guests explain the role specifications play in ensuring equipment from different suppliers can work together, supporting interoperability, protecting investment and giving highway authorities confidence in the technology they procure.

They also look ahead to an increasingly connected road network, discussing why common standards become particularly important as connected vehicles, new detection technologies and automated systems develop, while considering procurement, compatibility and the long-term maintenance of equipment.

TOPAS says it is continuing to work with the Department for Transport, which has undertaken to explore options for the continuation of standards, including those currently being developed or reviewed.

That makes this 30-minute conversation especially timely. Of course, it does not address the closure decision itself, but it does explain the wider role TOPAS and its standards have played and sets out many of the issues the sector will now need to consider as discussions about future arrangements continue.

Highways Voices is brought to you with our podcast partners the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG, ITS UK and ADEPT.