Cordel Group PLC (AIM:CRDL) has been awarded a new contract by Transport for London to expand its track and infrastructure monitoring from the Central Line to the District Line via a new Cordel LiDAR installation on a London Underground engineering vehicle. The deal is a direct extension of a partnership begun in September 2025 and is framed as follow-on, operational work rather than a one-off trial.
On the earlier Central Line deployment Cordel captured data with a LiDAR unit mounted on a revenue train, delivering "track and structure gauging throughout, plus ballast profiling and vegetation volume measurement in the substantial above-ground areas," the company said. That programme also produced a new location capability that moves beyond relative accuracy in tunnels to deliver absolute geo-location in deep tube environments — a capability Cordel says can be rolled out for underground railways worldwide.
The District Line contract will feed LiDAR data into Cordel’s Connect data management platform so TfL engineers can carry out pre- and post-works assessments remotely and reduce site visits. Cordel will also deliver Station Platform gauging reports intended to be compared with existing manual methods.
"We are excited about what Cordel has delivered so far and we look forward establishing where technologies such as Cordel's data capture and AI can be most effectively deployed. We are targeting key challenges in safety and asset management, particularly in the deep tube environment, and we plan to identify which challenges can be solved, long term." Ian Rawlings, London Underground's acting Head of Track Asset Performance and Delivery, said.
Cordel's chief executive John Davis added: "This important partnership has enabled us to develop an accurate in-tunnel geo-location extension to our product offering. We are delighted to win follow-on work to deliver a new deployment and to explore further use cases for TfL, building on what we have already successfully delivered.
"We look forward to supporting TfL as they plan the most effective use of Cordel technologies across their rail system."
