GMV has been one of the regular suppliers of ITS technology to both the Cypriot Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works and the island’s six public transit operators for the past seven years
A new project commissioned by the transist authority involves the implementation of a modern ticketing system on the 750 buses that make up its fleet: smarter and ticketless, travelers will be able to pay using contactless cards, phones, smartwatches, and bank cards, among other means
With this project the Cypriot government seeks to improve passenger service and transport efficiency of its concession’s bus fleet
The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works of the Republic of Cyprus has once again turned to GMV to upgrade of the country’s public transit system, consisting of 750 city and intercity buses operated by six companies under concession by the Ministry.
The relationship between the Ministry and GMV, as a technology provider, dates back to 2016, when the transit authority decided to technologically improve these concessions through a public tender, and it was GMV who secured the contract. Fleet management and ticket collection were handled manually by operators, with little automation and little government oversight. The Ministry relied on GMV’s technology todeploy across the entire bus fleet, providing an integrated, automated, and auditable ticketing system; a planned and controlled transit system; and a reliable passenger information tool.
Since then, GMV has been one of the regular suppliers of intelligent transportation system (ITS) technology to both the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works and the island’s seven public transit operators.
To further enhance the bus fleet’s current smart card system, the Cypriot government has recently entrusted GMV with a new project to implement an account-based ticketing (ABT) system. This system will allow passengers to travel smarter and ticket-free. It supports multiple identification alternatives for accessing and paying for public transportation, including contactless cards, phones, smartwatches, and bank cards.
ABT systems are based on cutting-edge technology that stores passenger accounts in the cloud rather than on a transit card, which serves only as an identifier. This allows for greater flexibility when generating fares or tickets, providing an immediate benefit to both the transit operator and the traveler. Operators’ workload is reduced, allowing them to focus on driving and service compliance in terms of schedules, punctuality, etc., while passengers benefit from the convenience of a common fare system across the country.
GMV will also implement a pilot bank card payment system on buses in the Famagusta district, a city in eastern Cyprus, using EMV Transit Level 3 technology. For credit and debit card transactions, this technology validates the integration of payment terminals that are compatible with bank systems. This will be the first deployment of such a system in Cyprus. In the medium term, the aim is to deploy it across the rest of the country.
Among other things, GMV will supply the new TV100 contactless card validators, which allow both regular transit and bank cards to be validated using the same reader. It will also provide the other system components required to achieve EMV Transit Level 3 certification, including the payment gateway subcontracted to Switchio by Monet+, an international leader in e-payment solutions.
GMV will also deliver certain subsystems, such as a new topology editor based on GMV Planner, GMV’s solution for planning and optimizing transportation services, and a business intelligence tool. Finally, the project entails renovating the display boards at the main bus station in Nicosia and migrating the entire IT infrastructure to the cloud.
The Ministry´s goal is to make transportation more efficient and improve passenger service adding new measures to increase safety, accessibility, and information of the bus fleets under its concession.
Cyprus school bus fleets
The Cypriot government has also decided to modernize the 750 school buses run by five operators on the island. To this end, GMV will equip the buses with both a smart card system and a computer-aided dispatch / automatic vehicle location (CAD/AVL) system.
CAD/AVL systems comprise a suite of solutions that combine different technologies to improve service and management, in this case for school buses. They can be used for a variety of applications, such as confirming the regularity of bus stops, informing passengers of the occupancy and estimated arrival time of the next bus, and informing drivers of the delay and occupancy of their own vehicle and the one following it.
The system will be supported by payment through ABT and GMV’s ITS Suite fleet management platform. It will allow operators to manage the entire transportation service, from monitoring service compliance in real time to exploiting data through business intelligence tools. It will also include tools for dispatching resources, alarm management, regulation tools, and more. In addition, the onboard equipment will include an Android mobile application for locating buses and making onboard card payments.
GMV is a leader in the design and implementation of turnkey, modular, and scalable intelligent transportation systems(ITS). It undertakes the complete development of all its projects, including hardware and software developed and manufactured in-house. For more than 25 years, it has been developing technological solutions for collective road passenger transportation, rail transportation, and the automotive industry. It has more than 350 employees working in this sector and over 950 customers across 30 countries on all continents.
