Tees Valley Digital Twin Wins CIHT Award
17th of June 2026
The Tees Valley Digital Twin has been awarded the prestigious 2026 CIHT Technology and Digital Transformation Award, recognising its real-world impact on journey reliability, bus performance, and proactive traffic management across the region.
Delivered by Tees Valley Combined Authority, with support from Aimsun and Yunex Traffic, this initiative represents a major step forward in how transport networks are managed using digital innovation.
Recognising Digital Innovation in Transport
The award, presented by the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) at its annual ceremony in London, celebrates projects that demonstrate the positive impact of technology, data, and digital transformation in the transport sector.
For Aimsun, Tees Valley Combined Authority, and Yunex Traffic, this recognition highlights the success of a collaborative effort focused on delivering practical, measurable benefits for everyday transport users.
What Makes the Tees Valley Digital Twin Unique?
The Tees Valley Digital Twin is the UK’s first region-wide automated traffic digital twin. It is also the first system in the country to connect directly to on-street traffic signal infrastructure, allowing automated interventions in real time.
Developed as part of the Tees Valley Digital Transport Programme, the system enables transport teams to shift from reactive traffic management to a proactive and predictive approach.
Instead of responding only to incidents or delays after they occur, the digital twin provides operators with a comprehensive view of current and emerging network conditions. This allows for faster, data-driven decisions that improve traffic flow and reduce disruption.
Real-World Impact on Journey Reliability
The impact of the Tees Valley Digital Twin is already measurable:
- 13.7% reduction in average delays for general traffic where targeted strategies were applied
- Significant improvements in bus performance, with weighted mean segment speeds increasing from 4.3 mph to 15.9 mph within 15 minutes of intervention
- Faster responses to incidents, helping both public transport and general traffic recover more quickly
These results demonstrate how digital tools can improve journey reliability, making transport systems more efficient and responsive.
Benefits for Transport Users and Operators
The benefits of the Tees Valley Digital Twin are felt directly by users and operators:
- More reliable buses encourage greater use of public transport
- Reduced delays improve the daily experience of road users
- Better operational insight enables more confident and effective traffic management decisions
By combining real-time data with predictive capabilities, the system helps create a more resilient and adaptable transport network.
Strong Collaboration Behind the Success
This award also recognises the strong collaboration behind the project. Aimsun congratulates Sean Fryer and Andrea Reacroft at Tees Valley Combined Authority for their leadership, alongside the wider Tees Valley team and local authority partners.
Special recognition also goes to Aimsun team members James Daniels, Gavin Bailey, Luis Ramos, Carles Illera, Dimitris Triantafyllos, and Jordi Gimenez, as well as Yunex Traffic for their key role in enabling integration with traffic signal infrastructure.
The close collaboration between local authorities, technology providers, and transport experts has been essential to the project’s success.
A Blueprint for the Future of Transport Networks
The Tees Valley Digital Twin demonstrates how digital innovation can move beyond pilot projects and become part of day-to-day transport operations.
It provides a scalable model for other regions looking to:
- Improve network performance
- Enhance public transport reliability
- Optimise the use of existing infrastructure
Winning the CIHT Technology and Digital Transformation Award 2026 marks an important milestone, but it also signals what comes next. As Tees Valley continues to develop its Digital Transport Programme, the project shows how data, automation, and collaboration can deliver smarter, more responsive transport systems.
