Network
- Publication no: AP-R741-25
- ISBN: 978-1-922994-81-3
- Published: 30 June 2025
- PDF (free) Download
This report examines how Transport Management Centres (TMCs) manage planned and unplanned Intelligent Transport System (ITS) outages. It provides practical guidance to ensure operational resilience and continuity to manage disruptions. It identifies methods to mitigate risks, maintain services, and recover from outages.
The report combines findings from a literature review and insights gathered from consultations with agencies. It captures existing practices and real-world challenges in managing ITS outages. Key resilience strategies explored include system redundancy, risk management, Business Continuity Plans (BCPs), Disaster Recovery Plans (DRPs) and Degraded Operations Plans (DOPs). The report also identifies relevant cybersecurity standards – such as ISO/IEC 27001 and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework – for safeguarding systems. Strong stakeholder collaboration is highlighted as essential to effective outage management.
The report presents a practical framework for TMC response to ITS outages. It includes a set of tools for conducting Business Impact Assessment (BIA) and developing BCPs, DRPs, DOPs and ITS mitigation strategies spanning the prevention, preparedness, response and recovery phases. This helps TMCs protect critical infrastructure, maintain essential functions, and recover swiftly. It also helps strengthen resilience and ensure consistent and reliable service delivery in an increasingly complex technological environment.
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- Summary
- 1. Introduction
- 1.1 Purpose
- 1.2 Scope
- 1.3 Methodology
- 1.4 Key terms
- 2. Role of ITS to Support TMC operations
- 2.1 Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)
- 2.2 ITS in TMCs
- 3. Potential ITS Outages and Impacts
- 4. Literature Review
- 4.1 International literature
- 4.1.1 A qualitative approach to analyse the security and survivability of critical infrastructure networks
- 4.1.2 Intelligent Transport Systems Joint Program Office Module 14: ITS in emergencies and disasters
- 4.1.3 Mainstreaming system resilience concepts into transportation agencies: A guide
- 4.1.4 Reference Handbook for Harmonized ITS Core Service Deployment in Europe
- 4.1.5 Recovery and mitigation for transportation management centres
- 4.1.6 New York guidance for power outages at signalised intersections
- 4.1.7 Cybersecurity and Intelligent Transportation Systems: A best practice guide
- 4.1.8 Transport Management Centre information technology security
- 4.1.9 Cybersecurity considerations for public transit
- 4.1.10 Practices for improving the coordination of information technology and transportation systems management and operations resources: A reference document
- 4.1.11 Challenges with ITS operations
- 4.2 Local literature
- 4.2.1 Independent review of the 2016 South Australia extreme weather event
- 4.2.2 Transport for NSW business continuity policy
- 4.2.3 Queensland Government business continuity management and ICT disaster recovery implementation
- 4.2.4 Queensland Government information security policy
- 4.2.5 Transport for NSW: Providing emergency power to traffic signals
- 4.2.6 NZTA Traffic Operations Centres maintenance and renewals planning
- 4.2.7 TfNSW incident response and communications during the CrowdStrike outage
- 4.1 International literature
- 5. Discussion and Findings of Literature Review
- 5.1 Discussion of key findings
- 5.2 Relevant standards and frameworks
- 5.2.1 Information security standards and frameworks
- 5.2.2 Resilience and BCM standards
- 5.2.3 Service management standards
- 6. Austroads Member Agency Consultation
- 6.1 Initial Austroads member agency consultation
- 6.1.1 Victoria Department of Transport and Planning
- 6.1.2 South Australia Department of Infrastructure and Transport
- 6.1.3 Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads
- 6.1.4 Main Roads Western Australia
Case Studies of MRWA responses to ITS outages - 6.1.5 Transport for NSW
- 6.2 Austroads member agency consultation workshop
- 6.3 Summary of consultation findings
- 6.1 Initial Austroads member agency consultation
- 7. Framework and Recommendations for TMC Response to ITS Outages
- 7.1 TMC Response to ITS Outages Framework
- 7.1.1 Continuity and resilience policy development
- 7.1.2 Business Impact Assessment
- 7.1.3 Business continuity planning
- 7.1.4 Degraded operations planning
- 7.1.5 Incident response planning
- 7.1.6 Disaster recovery planning
- 7.1.7 ITS/IT monitoring
- 7.1.8 Training and testing
- 7.1.9 ITS/IT outage and mitigation matrices
- 7.1.10 Standards and frameworks
- 7.2 Guidance on using the TMC response to ITS Outages Framework
- 7.2.1 Guidance on policy development
- 7.2.2 Guidance on Business Impact Analysis
Key outputs summary - 7.2.3 Guidance on business continuity planning
- 7.2.4 Guidance on degraded operations planning
- 7.2.5 Guidance on incident response planning
- 7.2.6 Guidance on disaster recovery planning
- 7.2.7 Guidance on ITS/IT monitoring
- 7.2.8 Guidance on training and testing
- 7.2.9 Guidance on ITS/IT outage and mitigation matrices
- 7.2.10 Guidance on standards and frameworks
- 7.3 Implementation approach
- 7.4 Critical success factors
- 7.1 TMC Response to ITS Outages Framework
- 8. Conclusion
- References
- Appendix A: Consultation Questions