The Small Town of Levanger Takes a Lead in High-Tech Solutions for Public Transport
Trondheim/Norway, 27 Januar 2017 --- The second customer installation of FourC’s disruptive and open Cities in Motion Service Platform has just been delivered. The customer is Trønderbilene, and the open Service Platform plus a wide range of services is enabled for Trønderbilene and citizens of the town of Levanger.
Nord-Trøndelag county, Levanger municipality and Trønderbilene are running the “Travel Smart in Levanger” project. As an initiative to increase public transport ridership, new hybrid (electrical + diesel) Volvo buses have been purchased and low cost tickets have been introduced. Single rides can be purchased for approx. €1 and a full monthly pass is around €10. To date, ridership has increased by 42%!
As part of the project, fitting the vehicles with state-of-the art ICT equipment was on the agenda. Mitron OY (Finland) was chosen as the supplier for the 22” in-vehicle displays (two in each vehicle), and FourC supplied a fully equipped standard vehicle PC for just €1000.
As software solution, FourC’s modern software-as-a-service approach was the clear choice. Standard vehicle PCs were installed which host FourC’s Cities in Motion Service Platform. Services running on the platform already include Passenger Wi-Fi, LiveScreen infotainment and Passenger Flow Analysis.
The ribbon gets cut and modernized public transport is enabled in Levanger. Left to right: Robert Svarva (mayor of Levanger municipality), Tomas Iver Hallem (county council representative for public transport), Vidar Kjesbu (CEO Trønderbilene).
The Service Platform is open for an even wider range of services which can be installed over-the-air, with no extra hardware investments. These service include location services using FourC’s Beaconizer, Announce It! real-time announcements, FMS integration using the Vehicle Data Interface service, the Alco-Guard alcometer service and more upcoming services from several suppliers. The platform is also available for ticketing services, eliminating the extensive costs involved for purchasing custom ticketing computers.
The open Service Platform also performs as a vehicle gateway for Internet traffic, meaning that other devices can take advantage of internet and cloud connections without a specific and expensive vehicle gateway.
In addition to the vehicle PC and its services, the FourC backend incorporates a real-time system that provides real-time information and arrival prediction for the Tronderbilene real-time apps. These will be made available on Google Play and AppStore during February and March.
“We are delighted install our open system on yet another forward-thinking customer”, says Tor Rune Skoglund, CEO of FourC. “Huge operators like Trønderbilene know that the costs for ICT bus equipment must come down, and we are extremely glad to be able to bring them in that direction.”
“There has been a remarkable cooperation between FourC and Trønderbilene in the development of technology solutions for the city buses of Levanger”, says Vidar Kjesbu, CEO of Trønderbilene. He continues that “Trønderbilene are looking forward to both being a part of and supporting the further development and to expand the partnership with FourC in the future.”
For more information, please contact:
Tor Rune Skoglund, CEO FourC AS
+47 72 55 99 00
About FourC AS
The start-up FourC AS (www.fourc.eu) is developing an infrastructure platform for management of distributed systems with focus on the Internet of Things, M2M, transport, healthcare, smart homes and automation. The customised version of this platform built for public transport is named “Cities in Motion Service Platform”, on which bus companies, public transport authorities and operators can deploy a broad range of services. FourC has 11 employees with head offices in Trondheim and a branch office in the UK. The company has received support from Norway’s research council for a €4M R&D project in the area of new solutions for public transport in Norway. More information about this project can be found at www.opensp.eu.
About Trønderbilene AS
The Trønderbilene group (www.tronderbilene.no) operates public transport and maintenance operations in the Trøndelag, Hedmark and Oppland counties. The headquarters of the group is located in Levanger and the group possesses a fleet of 500 buses. The group’s annual turnover is NOK 640 million with a total of 645 employees. Trønderbilene AS is 100% owned by Torghatten ASA, which has an annual turnover of approximately NOK 8.6 billion and approximately 5,000 employees.