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SPRUCE History

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‘SPRUCE’ (standing for Selective PRogramming in a UtmC Environment) started as the software-based Priority Tool originally developed by Leeds City Council under the DfT sponsored UTMC01 project.  After successful trialing of a prototype version of the software in both Sheffield and Leeds, Leeds City Council funded a software development contract with TSEU (now Telent) to develop SPRUCE into a more robust software product known as STM.

 

Development history
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1995 - Prior to the initial bidding process to design and build the first line of the Leeds Supertram scheme (1995), Leeds UTC engineers recognised that some form of enhanced control system was required to better achieve the goals of maximum tram priority with minimal disruption to other road users.  Such a system was described in principal at the Public Inquiry into the Supertram Extension (1997), in relation to how the tram was likely to operate at key junctions in the Leeds Supertram scheme.

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1997 - Although funding for the tram was then delayed, the momentum behind the need for better ‘priority tools’ was such that in 1997 Leeds, as lead partner in a partnership, made a bid for development monies from DfT (the partnership included Sheffield City Council, Leeds University ITS and Microsense Systems).  The bid related to the Urban Traffic Management & Control (UTMC) initiative and the partnership, using the acronym ‘SPRUCE’ (for Selected PRiority in the UtmC Environment), made a bid for the ‘UTMC01’ project.

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2000 - Being a research project, much of the output of UTMC01 was in the form of reports (notably Reports 3 and 4 - see UTMC website: www.utmc.org.uk) but, being one of the UTMC demonstration projects, it had a number of tangible deliverables including:

  • a general purpose national UTMC interfacing specification developed and proved (allowing connection of software priority tools to an existing Fixed Time UTC system);

  • an extremely flexible priority tool was developed & tested in prototype form (in Sheffield from August 2000);

  • a range of priority strategies were developed and tested.

The prototype software proved so successful in the test area of Shefield (see summarized results below) that the tram operator (Stagecoach Supertram) insisted that Sheffield City Council continue to run the system beyond the formal trial period.

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2001 - The prototype SPRUCE software has been adapted to allow the provision of priority for guided buses as part of the East Leeds Quality Bus Initiative – a scheme of greater scale than the Sheffield trial area.  In addition, the prototype has been used to help investigate the priority arrangements on Leeds Supertram project.

 

2002 - Such developments of the prototype are a necessary response to the immediate needs of priority for public transport. However, in parallel with this work, the City Council is taking active steps to re-engineer the SPRUCE software into a more robust and fully supportable product. The specification for this work is generally along the lines of the prototype software, but with both expansion in scale and enhancements in key areas.  Following approval of monies from its own capital programme, Leeds appointed two bidding organisations to undertake a software feasibility study and, following the completion of these studies (2002), a contract was let with Microsense Systems Ltd.

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2002 - Leeds was jointly commissioned by Croydon and London (TfL) to undertake a desktop study into the feasibility of utilising SPRUCE to reduce traffic delay in part of the Croydon tram network, without adversely affecting trams.  This followed complaints by the public and the bus operator regarding problems caused by the effect of ‘absolute’ tram priority on Wellesley Road.  The favourable results of the study were produced in a report.

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2005 - Delivery of SPRUCE  (known briefly as ‘STM’ by Telent) product to Leeds and Sheffield. Both start to implement strategies, mostly for bus priority. The timescale of this implementation is geared to the complementary introduction of an Automatic Vehicle Location system, to be made available for use in East Leeds in 2005/6.This will provide STM with more comprehensive ‘virtual’ bus detector inputs so as to further enhance priority capabilities.

 

2008 - Leeds FTR Route 4 Quality Bus Corridor uses SPRUCE to deliver 5 minute end to end route time savings across Leeds from Pudsey to Seacroft.

 

2009 to 2013 - West Yorkshire Bus Priority Project covering the 5 districts of WY, 3 of which now have STM installed - Leeds, Calderdale and Bradford. Over 200 bus priority junctions are implemented with STM Strategies.

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2010 - SPRUCE to Siemens PC SCOOT interface is developed and implemented in Bradford.

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2014 - Edinburgh has SPRUCE installed and implemented across the city centre network of 26 junctions by BRH.

 

2015 - Sheffield use BRH to focus on a number known hotspots around the city caused by Tram movements. SPRUCE is used to 'clean up' the existing LRT priority by eradicating stage skipping and providing compensation to opposing traffic movements.

 

2016 – Telent agrees that SPRUCE to be licensed and maintained via Underdog Software. Underdog is company setup by the original developers that worked on the SPRUCE product.

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