Telent’s Royal Funeral role to ensure smooth operations

Transport for London (TfL) awarded Telent this contract as part of the overall TCMS2 contract, and worked alongside the MoD, Cabinet Office, Royal Parks, Westminster City Council, Metropolitan Police, and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Telent has worked with a number of these companies previously.

In the early hours of the morning during the 10 day run-up to the funeral, Telent was responsible for the removal of traffic signals to support the rehearsals and movements of the Military and enable the media to finalise the best views and vantage points for streaming the news coverage to the millions watching at home. These poles were then required to be re-installed before normal business hours to ensure Transport for London could ‘keep London moving’. This involved the removal and re-installation of c.500 signal poles.

Members of the Telent team came together at short notice to ensure that the day was carried out successfully, respectfully, and safely.

The c.175 poles were removed and reinstalled multiple times, in order to prioritise the safety of every individual in the area and to provide a clear route for Military movements as well as provide a clearer view of road.

Due to our longstanding relationship with The Royal Parks and in front of the world’s media, Telent were able to remove numerous traffic signal poles outside of Buckingham Palace and along the Mall within a 24 hour period.

Significant liaison and collaboration with all client organisations were required to ensure that everybody was well informed of the functions and plans for the day, leaving no room for confusion or miscommunication.

The strict requirements of needing to be on and off-site in as short time as possible due to the hard deadlines for rehearsal activities and other preparations was respected and carefully followed by the team.

The team worked tirelessly around the clock to make sure every aspect of the preparations was taken care of. This included completing works by 03:30AM at Hyde Park Corner to allow for the security sweep to take place. Telent completed the works to the deadlines, despite having to overcome the challenges of losing time, as a result of delays by the police being able to enforce the road closures. This was due to VIP and military movements, which resulted in restricting the team’s access. Telent’s contribution at such short notice did not go unnoticed.