On the 4th of February, ITxPT Members met for the 2nd time at the ITxPT Workshop in Brussels. During the meeting, some members presented their ITxPT related activities, and all attendees could exchange their views during break-out sessions about use cases, concrete use of test bench, tenders’ guidelines or technical tools acceptance tests.

Deployment of the ITxPT specifications and guidelines has become a reality on the field. Alstom, the first rail Industry to join ITxPT Association, presented their Attractis program, using ITxPT background. Thanks to the use of open IT architecture, compliant with the CEN standard EN13149 7/8/9, Attractis offers an improved interoperability between IT systems (AVMS, passenger information, traffic light control, ticketing, passenger counting) and enhanced quality of service with an optimized cost. The application of ITxPT in tram environment shows the synergies between different modes of public transportation, and opens the scope of further complementarity.

Nobina, the first operator to join the ITxPT Association as Strategic Partner, also showed how standard IT architecture is implemented in their fleet. Their NME solution (Nobina Mobile Extension) provides IT services in the buses, such as eco-driving, GPS-positioning, CCTV, passenger counting, mobile tickets, infotainment and Internet on board. NME has been developed to define a “technology independent platform”, to avoid proprietary IT systems and redundant equipment. This modern and cost-effective solution enables Nobina to keep up worth future technological developments in a smooth way, fully in line with ITxPT vision and related CEN standard EN13149 7/8/9. As a next step, Nobina is working to move NME towards full ITxPT compliance within the next few months.

Thanks to all participants, the comments and exchanges during the workshop led to fruitful discussions and concrete outcomes soon to be announced with the set-up of working groups. Multiplication and sharing of experience show the ever-growing interest for implementing a cost-effective, safe and sustainable IT architecture.

In case of questions, do not hesitate to contact Pauline Bruge: pauline.bruge@uitp.org.