GMV´s technology onboard Cyprus’s buses
Onboard a bus in Nicosia, Cyprus’s Transport and Communications Minister, Marios Demetriadis, has personally checked out the advanced fleet-management and passenger-information system fitted by the multinational technology firm GMV as part of Cyprus’s overall public-transport modernization scheme.
The minister rated this system as very important for this country’s public transport system, implementing as it does telematics and the automatic fare-collection system. This system will be gradually phased in to every city, improving public-transport services for all Cyprus’s citizens.
“The state is obliged to keep up, promote and improve public-transport services. Boosting the number of public-transport users is a crucial step in tackling the traffic problem”, argued Minister Demetriadis during his visit.
The system is now in an advanced phase. Checks of all the systems have been successfully accomplished, while the control-center equipment has been fitted in all the bus companies.
Progress is at the same time being made in the installation of thirty points of sale in the central stations as well as the system equipment in all Cyprus’s public buses. This equipment has now been fitted in about two thirds of the 790 vehicles and the fleets of the biggest provinces of Nicosia and Limassol will be phased in during this current month of December.
ONBOARD WITH THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY
GMV’s modernization of the public-transport fleet includes the turnkey supply, installation and integration of all the technological equipment and the necessary software for Cyprus’s public-transport bus fleet, including integrated payment systems as well as the fleet-management and passenger-information system.
The system also comprises a common central back-office, diverse onboard equipment to suit the particular vehicle type and use, and posts of various types throughout the whole country.
This GPS technology tells would-be passengers the current location of each bus while the bus’s onboard computer keeps up permanent communications between the driver and control center. Information of all type can also be exchanged about any incidents, ETAs, personnel services, etc.
As for the new fare-payment system, this will allow the use of paper tickets, ultralight single-use cards to replace the traditional barcode or magnetic-strip cards, ensuring a swifter, easier and securer payment system. The MIFARE DESFire EV2 rechargeable smartcard will likewise help to guarantee quicker and securer payment formats.
These intelligent systems will tell would-be passengers the exact time of arrival at the bus-stop. This information will be given to 30 electronic signal panels installed in bus stations and the main bus-stops at the central points of the cities. Other advantages of the new advanced fleet-management system are real-time fleet control and monitoring; the use of historical service-quality information; Ecodriving; and the supply of information to onboard passengers at bus-stop panels by means of an app that will be ready by mid-January 2018 and a web that is already up and running.
PHASES SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED
After several months of development and tests with a series of intermediate milestones, such as the closure of the technical specification or the installation of the laboratory buses, between July and August this year GMV successfully passed the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and the Site Acceptance Test (SAT), both key project milestones.
Some of these tests were conducted in the offices of the Cypriot ministry. Others were carried out on the buses themselves, verifying statically and on real routes that the actual operation meets project requirements.
The system came through all these tests with flying colors, winning approval from the Technical Committee assigned by Cyprus’s Transport and Communications Ministry.