Firstco Control and Communications Systems Design Consultants and Systems Integrators

Firstco was delighted to sponsor a presentation entitled 'Ultra - Heathrow and Beyond' at the IET in Central London. The evening presented industry peers and students with the opportunity to meet the people behind the ground-breaking Personal Rapid Transport (PRT) system, now running at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5.

Firstco won two major contracts from Morgan Sindall and Birse Metro for the detailed design and delivery of the control systems for station-cooling projects at Green Park and Oxford Circus. Completed at the start of the summer, these two initiatives form part of Transport for London's (TfL) ongoing Cooling the Tube programme, transforming commuter rail services in the Capital.

Firstco has successfully integrated Heathrow Express' CCTV network into the British Transport Police's (BTP) London CCTV Hub system.

Following their recent multi-million pound contract with Ultra Electronics Airport Systems in Oman, Firstco has announced it will be opening an office in Muscat.

Firstco has been awarded preferred supplier status, becoming one of three contractors to undergo further competitive competition to design and build a 10G IP network linking the sixty stations of the Tyne and Wear Metro.

The Cooling the Tube programme has been established to minimise the problem of increasing temperatures across the London Underground network, which can surpass 30°C at some locations through the summer months. As part of this programme, ventilation shafts are being upgraded on the Victoria L

Transport for London (TfL) is investing in the future of Tramlink and is developing a comprehensive programme of enhanced maintenance, renewals, upgrades and capacity enhancement for implementation between now and 2018. Firstco was recently approached by TfL to undertake a study into t

Ian Fugeman has joined the board of Firstco, the specialist controls and communications systems company, as a non-executive director. Firstco chairman Mark Calnan said: "We are absolutely delighted to welcome Ian onto the board of Firstco. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge and e

Firstco have been appointed by Costain as systems integrator for the specialist systems work across the programme; these systems involve security, wireless communications and operational systems as well as innovative work managing the new forecourt facility. The four man Firstco team, headed up b

Firstco are pleased to have successfully completed their Way-Finding project for the Heathrow Express. The project involved delivering 11 new digital displays throughout Heathrow Express rail stations. As well as providing valuable way-finding information, the live web-based displays wi

Firstco are delighted to announce that Adam Anderson has joined the company as a senior engineer. For the last six years Adam has worked with or for BAA. Most recently he has been the development leader for Airport Operational Systems. This has involved managing a systems portfolio wort

Firstco are delighted to announce that, following a competitive tender process, Heathrow Express has chosen Firstco to support all their communication and control systems. The contract will run for three years with an option of extending it to ten. Heathrow Express has been in operatio

Firstco devised ways of saving Heathrow Express money and time by helping them to reduce their carbon burden by 200t/year, saving them annual charges of over £30,000 at Heathrow Central and Terminal 4. In compliance with their environmental philosophy, Heathrow Express are endeavouring

Firstco has been continuing its work with the London Crossrail project throughout 2008 and 2009. Currently work is being performed on the design of intervention and escape shafts which need to be positioned before any tunnelling can begin. Firstco are producing early designs of the comm

Between the end of October and early December 2008, Firstco carried out improvement works to enhance the PA systems at Heathrow Central and Heathrow Terminal 4 stations. Heathrow Express were looking to increase the sound quality of their public address systems, which also work as emerg

One of the main responsibilities of Firstco recently was to test and commission the telephone and public address / voice alarm systems within the new T5 rail station and tunnels. The phone systems there consist of over 100 analogue telephone lines. These serve general-purpose telephone

Firstco has been responsible for the passenger information systems at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 rail station. This includes the PA, clocks, and four train-information display systems. The work at Terminal 5 has been markedly different to the previous projects for most Firstco emplo

The advertising at Heathrow Central and T4 previously was in the form of static illuminated posters, scrolling illuminated posters and tunnel-mounted posters. The scrolling posters could only cycle through three different advertisements at a time. The posters had to be physically replaced in orde

Seven members of staff at Firstco, the technical consultancy, project management and systems integration specialists - Rupert Exham, Darren Grey, Steve Haynes, Peter Laing, Stephen Nuttall, Richard Tirrell and Colin Reynolds – have completed the Three Peaks Challenge and, in the process, raised s

Firstco, the technical consultancy, project management and systems integration specialists, have recently completed an upgrade to the Heathrow Express (HEx) Optical Transport Network (OTN) system. The OTN system carries all of Heathrow Express's data and communication links and the loss of any pa

When Union Railways North (URN), a subsidiary of London and Continental Railways (LCR), needed some experienced engineers on site to report on progress and advise on problems involved in building part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), also known as High Speed 1, it turned to Firstco, the te

Firstco, one of the UK's leading technical consultancy, project management and systems integration specialists, has just completed the customer factory acceptance testing of a ControLogix PLC system that is believed to be one of the largest of its kind in Europe. The PLC network architecture was

Firstco, one of the UK's leading technical consultancy, project management and systems integration specialists, has completed initial Functional Design Specifications (FDS) to enable London Crossrail to submit its plans to the UK's Parliament for approval. Working in partnership with Mo

Firstco, the technical consultancy, project management and systems integration specialist, has opened companies in Dubai and Mauritius. Firstco in Dubai and Firstco (Mauritius) Ltd offer the same services as Firstco currently provides for its clients in the UK. These services include a

Thanks to the application of Value-Assured Engineering (VAE) by Firstco, technical consultancy, project management and systems integration specialists, the Heathrow Express station at Heathrow's new Terminal 5 has seen an initial systems budget of £25m reduced to an anticipated final cost of