• Page 1
•  
• Christian Windhager, CTO:
  We were able to achieve three major development.
• The DataCenter an an information source
• TELE N´PASS NO SOUCI
•  
• Architecture and design
• Axess and Skidata compatible
• Access control in station buildings
•  
• Ticket vending machines
• Unique escape lane solution
•  
• Impressum
•   

TICKETING & ACCESS APPLICATIONS 2006

Architecture and design

Since 1906 the Hungerburgbahn funicular railway has connected Innsbruck with the Hungerburg plateau. After a few attempts to renovate the railway had failed, Strabag AG won an invitation to tender in the context of a Private Public Partnership Project in 2003.

The new station buildings were designed by Zaha Hadid. This world-famous architect had already created a new landmark for Innsbruck in the shape of the Bergiselschanze ski jump.

The new funicular railway is an attractive and environmentally-friendly local public transport system which can carry 1,200 people per hour. Equipping the new “Nordkettenbahn” funicular with an electronic fare collection system is one of the most challenging tasks – after all, this project combines demands from the skiing sector with those of the public transport provider OPNV.

Axess and Skidata compatible

The constant issue of recent years, the compatibility of systems from Axess and Skidata, has been solved! The ISO 15693 standard for chip cards has established a technical basis whose benefits in terms of price and functionality are unmistakable. The greater Innsbruck area, with Nordpark, Patscherkofel and Muttereralm, is one of the first compatible pools.

How does it work? When a leisure ticket is issued at a Nordpark POS, the Axess system sends the ticket information to the Skidata system on the Muttereralm. The first time this leisure ticket is then inserted in a Skidata reader at the Muttereralm, this reader also enters ticket data on the chip card. The chip card now has two identical ticket codes – the first one for Axess and the second one for Skidata. These functions have been used in regular operation since early December 2006!

Access control in station buildings

Access control at the stations of the funicular railway is implemented using the SmartAccess Terminal AX 500, a double turnstile developed specially for pedestrians. This stainless steel construction, with its gently curved design, blends perfectly with the architecture. The two-arm turnstile guarantees maximum convenience, even for people carrying luggage or a snowboard.

A special panic mechanism enables the pedestrian to be released from the turnstile. The integrated ticket scanner can read barcode tickets from Home and ISO 15693 chip cards and also ISO 14443 chip cards.

Ticketing and access control for swimming pools

Public swimming pools are increasingly being incorporated in major service offerings (for example City Cards) for citizens and tourists. Axess has also become a specialist for such applications.

The first major project of this type involved the pools in Winterthur (Switzerland), where 10 outdoor pools in the region could be used and paid for with a single card – the Sportpass Winterthur. The second major project focused on the bathing areas on Lake Wörthersee, including the largest outdoor bathing area in Europe with over 15,000 visitors a day. In 2006 the outdoor pools in the city of Salzburg, Leopoldskron, Volksgarten and Alpenstrasse, were also equipped.

The Axess equipments include point of sale (POS) and access control with turnstiles and ticket scanners. The approach to the car park spaces is also controlled. Further new facilities have been installed at Lake Mondsee and Ansfelden.

Ticketing for theme parks

In ticketing terms, an indoor ski venue has little to do with a ski resort; it is operated as a theme park. The Snowworld Landgraaf and Snowworld Zoetermeer in the Netherlands are two of the most successful indoor ski venues in Europe and have the longest runs in the world. One special challenge was to create a time card with barcode. For example, guests pay for 2 hours. When they enter the facility the time begins to run down, and when they leave it again the time measurement is stopped.

Jos de Boer, System Administrator, about the change of system: “Instead of introducing services like member cards or Internet ticketing, we had to fix the old gate hardware several times a week. The new ticketing system is easier to maintain in sense of both hardware and software configuration …”