Transport Information Group

Near Field Communication or NFC is a technology that has a great potential when associated with cellphones… In Asia, many transit systems adopted this technology and implemented it to ease the access to services related to transit trips, and mostly to intermodal transit trips. The last European Congress on Mobility, held early June in Paris, addressed this issue in an important debate.

French transit authorities (Autorités Organisatrices de Transport, AOT) could benefit from the development of such a technology, that could drastically improve ratemaking and ticketing, but also travelers information (for multimodal trips for example).

Groupe Ulysse: gathering phone operators and transit authorities to develop NFC technology

Both the French cellphone & network operators and transit authorities created “Groupe Ulysse” and are working on the technical and organisational standards to implement and deploy ticketing technology through NFC-capable cellphones. (more…)

What is Rouch Intermodal?

Rouch was created in 1945 by André Rouch. In order to meet a need of transport services from the south of France towards Paris, Rouch started to develop combined transport in 1963, and a partnership was signed with Novatrans (rail operator), in 1967.

Several agencies were settled in Paris, Avignon, and Lille and at the end of the 1980’s, Rouch was bought out by an British company. It allowed the company to develop its international business until July 2000, when Rouch joined SNCF Group. SNCF Participations, a SNCF Group subsidiary that covers all of SNCF-owned companies, now owns 98.96% of the shares (see below for SNCF Participations combined transport companies).

Rouch Intermodal will track its containers

Rouch Intermodal started to equip its containers with a satellite tracking system, and becomes this way the first company to implement such a technology in France. The technology used includes a electronic boxes fixed on the container and power by a lithium battery. (more…)

Gemalto, a Dutch world leader in digital security, was selected by Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) to participate in a project to implement a Near Field Communication (NFC) system. In the city of Trente, northern Italy, TIM subscribers will be able to take the bus using their cellphone as a smartcard.

“Gemalto provides TIM with transport applications embedded in the SIM cards to allow TIM customers to use their mobile phone as a convenient access device to take public transportation.“

Source: Gemalto

“Ticket issuance becomes more efficient and interactive”

Gemalto systems, integrated in the SIM card of cellphones, will allow users to buy transportation tickets through their cellphone from anywhere and then use it while riding the transit network. The contactless technology allows passengers to use their cellphones as if they had a smartcard: a way for the user to carry less devices, and for the transit authority to reduce its operating costs. Dematerialising tickets, as it has been done since June 1 with airlines tickets (see References from the Transport Information Group below), it removes part of the ticket issuance costs, reduces access point’s maintenance expenses, and also minimizes fraud. (more…)

Protests in the United Kingdom

This is seldom enough to be mentioned: United Kingdom hauliers recently held a protest in London causing severe inconveniences for westbound road users of the highway A40. This arises from a Government announcement to add a £0.02 per litre fuel tax. Hauliers claim the withdrawal of this initiative and call for an “essential user” rebate. This request seems all the more legitimate for hauliers since the United Kingdom has the highest gas tax rate: €0.72 per litre, whereas the European average is about €0.35 per litre (in June 2007, prices were €0.43 per litre in France, €0.47 per litre in Germany, €0.43 per litre in Slovakia).

Professional organisations and logistics companies utter their regrets regarding disruptions that occurred on the highway A40, but said all the same that fuel price escalation has a big impact on their activity. Most companies, among the biggest ones, reached agreements with their clients and negotiated how to pass on overcosts generated by fuel price increases.

Longer and heavier trucks to offset fuel price escalation?

In the Netherlands, this has just been done! Following trials run in November 2007 and series of specific studies, the Netherlands Government recently allowed all road carriers to operate longer and heavier trucks (length limit of 25.25 metres, weight limit of 60 tons), on the whole Dutch trunk roads and motorways network. Strictly speaking, these “oversized” vehicles are also allowed on local roads to access business facilities, not exceeding a distance of 20 kilometres from the authorised network, and only if local authorities previously gave their agreements. (more…)

Starting Sunday, June 1, 2008, the 240+ airlines members of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) will not anymore issue paper tickets for the flights they operate (94% of worldwide passengers air traffic).

To get a boarding pass, only a passport and a reservation number will be needed. The removal of paper tickets was initiated in 2004, and is now finalized (paper tickets already issued may still be used until May 31, 2009): it will definitely improve lots of procedures, such as ticket exchange, modification, or cancellation. For all the travelers, it will bring a lot of advantages, from not being afraid of losing their tickets to checking-in online from their house or office, and print themselves their boarding passes. This was already existing but today is a new step, there will not be any other solution. E-ticketing will represent (and already is) a substantial economy for airlines: up to $3 billion per year (see IATA data below).

E-ticketing goes 100%

The industry is at 100% ET. At midnight around the world on Saturday night 31 May 2008, travel agents stopped issuing IATA neutral paper tickets. (more…)

Despite the good results of experimentations nothing happened since 2004…

In 2004, a first attempt of automatic minibus implementation was tested in Antibes (South of France). This was part of a research project called Cybermove (see website in the References below), which has analysed in details 11 sites in Europe. The purpose of Antibes demonstration was to show the people the general operation and functionality of the ParkShuttle system (using Frog vehicles: see the pictures on Cybercars website here). ParkShuttle was controlled automatically, and the required destination was selected by pushing on a control panel, in the vehicle.

Experimentation details

During a 10-days testing period, the shuttle took around 3,000 persons on a 320-metre long section, in front of the Vauban port. The hybrid shuttle, with a 20-passenger capacity, was guided by magnets implanted in the road. The obstacle detection was assured by a laser beam with a 30 metres outreach. The shuttle had 5 stops on its route and rode at 15 kph (around 10 mph), 9 hours a day.

Experimentation results

On the technical side, this experimentation was a success: very good reliability, easy set-up (the magnets were installed in only one night!), the control system never failed, the comfort was better than a mechanically guided system, and the obstacle detection has been a great success… despite the fact that pedestrians tried to burst in front of the shuttle at the last second.

The public considered the service was reliable, easy to use, and that is had good performances, was comfortable, noiseless, and “eco-aware”. (more…)