The UK’s West Midlands 5G (WM5G) is set to invest in seven consortiums to support the development of new products and services that will transform transport across the region.

The company will invest £2.4m ($3.05m) in the consortiums for launching 5G-enabled roads, as well as rail transport trials, across the West Midlands.

The first phase of the funding competition is set to deliver new projects that will either provide a use case to improve road and rail operational efficiency, provide better-connected transport, or improve passenger experiences, if successful.

Scheduled to run until the end of 2021, the projects will involve trialling and testing of innovative services in the West Midlands region.

WM5G Transport programme director Chris Holmes said: “We have been delighted with the response to this first competition, which was heavily oversubscribed, and are really pleased to be awarding the funding to projects that we truly believe, when proven, will transform transport within the region.

“We look forward to seeing what our new partners deliver and will support them in the realisation of real and tangible benefits.”

The projects that will receive the investment are Capacity Manager – Blacc, Immense, Elgin, University of Warwick, and O2; Predikt – AppyWay and Getmapping; CURBS – Vortex IoT, Passenger Management – GoMedia, Wordnerds and Icomera.

Other projects include Transport Accessibility – GoMedia and Icomera; Tram Safety – Icomera, Classone Systems, DigitalRail; and Urban Tourism – You. Smart. Thing., Landmrk, Imagemakers, and Oodl.

A second round of the funding competition for 5G-enabled road and rail trials will close on 2 December.