THALES has been selected by Alstom Transport and CTCI Corp to update ticketing on the Taipei metro. The Transport & Energy business will be working with local partners Mitac and ACS on the €40m contract announced towards the end of last year.
The metro’s existing ticketing equipment was supplied by Thales and Mitac, and uses a combination of EasyCard contactless smart cards and recyclable magnetic stripe tickets. These are to be replaced by fully contactless cards, with single-use contactless smart tokens for occasional travellers. The card is also valid on buses and at 50 car parks.
Around 1500 gates are to be supplied for fitting at over 100 metro stations, along with 700 token vending machines, 250 ticket office machines and 160 information terminals. The automatic ticket gates will collect the tokens for reuse. Pilot installations will enter service in 2006, and the entire network will be covered by 2009. The Xinzhuang, Luchou, Nankang and Neihu extensions currently under construction will be equipped by 2012.
