MetroCard aboard trains

Newly refurbished railcar, MetroCard equipped

A two cars train has been fitted with new MetroCard system last week to make sure rail environment was confirming good results obtained on board buses in Adelaide hills. Tests are on-going at time I am writing this article and no major problem has been detected.

One of Adelaide’s ticketing particularity is installing equipment on board trains rather than equipping stations. Main reason behind this is that most stations of Adelaide rail network do not have adequate building infrastructures to accommodate an efficient classic entry/exit control with automatic barrier gates. This “onboard” arrangement is perfectly adapted to local operation, it is very efficient reducing vandalism and optimizing maintenance. Furthermore current passenger traffic is average by heavy mass transit standards and doesn’t justify such investment. Adelaide railway station is the hub for all rail routes, it is equipped with automatic barriers allowing full control of a good 90% of the traffic.

Typical train station

Each railcar is fitted with tri-technology validators (magnetic tickets LoCo, HiCo, contactless cards), mono-technology validators (contactless cards), automatic vending machine and a Driver console in each driving cabin. Vending machines accept coins, give change and in very near future credit cards will be accepted. Passengers can obtain a pre-validated magnetic ticket  for their trip or recharge their MetroCard. Note that recharging MetroCard doesn’t wave necessity to validate trip using validators.

 

On board automatic vending machine

Train drivers use the console to identify themselves and to set next trip to be done, then everything is automatic thanks to GPS, 3G transmission and inter car communication line.
The unprecedented rail upgrade program currently ongoing will undoubtedly generate a patronage increase in very near future. This has been taken into account by increasing number of validators per door: current system features one validator per door, new MetroCard system has four validators per door. This greatly improve boarding times making it possible to reduce the time spent by the train at each station.

When living in Adelaide, you are never too far from the sea

Like for buses, railcars connect to MetroCard computer centre via 3G which provides rich and reliable means of communication. Credit card module is directly connected the bank via a GPRS connection to ensure security and confidentiality of transactions.

Rollout on all trains is scheduled to start at the end of this trial period.

On board trains

Arrival at Adelaide railway station
Arrival at Adelaide railway station
Newly refurbished railcar
Newly refurbished railcar
Driver's cabin
Driver's cabin
Mobile ticket vending machine
Mobile ticket vending machine
Validation equipment
Validation equipment
Mobile ticket vending machine
Mobile ticket vending machine
On board
On board
General arrangement
General arrangement
Control unit
Control unit
Just validated
Just validated

About Dominique BIEVRE

I am a consultant specialised in ticketing systems. I have a good 25 years of experience in this field, a detailed story of my career can be found on my website: www.dtb-consult.com. This blog is to propose a mean to talk about ticketing your comments or suggestions are most welcome.
This entry was posted in Ticketing. Bookmark the permalink.

7 Responses to MetroCard aboard trains

  1. Just want to say your article is as surprising. The clarity for your submit is just spectacular and i can suppose you’re a professional in this subject. Well along with your permission allow me to grab your RSS feed to keep up to date with drawing close post. Thank you one million and please carry on the enjoyable work.

  2. I am extremely impressed along with your writing skills as smartly as with the layout on your weblog. Is that this a paid subject or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it’s uncommon to look a great weblog like this one these days..

    • Thank you, I am delighted you like it. As far as the blog is concerned, I am just using WordPress utilities which gives plenty of posssibilities. All aticles and associated pictures are mine.

  3. Areta says:

    i want to thank you for this informative read, i really appreciate sharing your post.http://www.kitsucesso.com

  4. Eusébia says:

    i like this so much. thanks for posting.http://www.divulgaemail.com

  5. Andra says:

    I read a lot of interesting content here. Probably you spend a lot of time
    writing, i know how to save you a lot of work, there is an online tool that creates high quality, SEO friendly posts in seconds, just type in google
    – laranitas free content

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *