Countrywide travel card system: Thales will extend the gating of the Dutch railway stations

Thales announces the deployment of new access control gates across the country for the Dutch Railways company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS).

Through this contract extension, Thales will supply and install the gates, along with the necessary peripheral equipment such as emergency doors and fixed barriers and take care of their maintenance.

Starting mid 2011, 65 of the busiest railway stations across the Netherlands will be progressively equipped with Thales’s solution. The new control gate will process the contactless “ov chipkaart” solution which has been specifically designed in collaboration with architects.

This new step reinforces the strong position of Thales on the Dutch public transport market. In 2009, Thales launched the first nationwide fare management system in the Netherlands, allowing passengers to travel by train, bus, tram or metro anywhere in the country with the same contactless travel card. The new ticketing system has proven a great success with public transport users.

Gerben Edelijn, CEO Thales Nederland explains :“we are very proud to have been selected by Dutch Railways again. This new contract confirms that our global fare management system is designed to cater efficiently for a wide variety of public transport environments, and at the same time tailored to each transport operators specific requirements.”

www.thalesgroup.com