RETAILING: Electronic point of sale company ECR is expanding from the onboard catering sales sector into ticketing technology, offering machines with a range of communication and ticket reading options, including 4G and wi-fi, 1D and 2D barcodes and chip & PIN payment.
The Go2 TicketPoS machine has been certified as meeting the UK’s ITSO standards, and Rail Delivery Group certification is expected shortly with a contract to supply handheld ticket machines to a London commuter operator lined up.
ECR has recently won its first contract in the light rail sector, covering the supply of handheld ticket readers for use by conductors on Sheffield’s Stagecoach Supertram network from June. According to ECR Chief Executive Simon Pont, this was a relatively complex project, as Supertram has many different fare types.
Pont sees the tram market as a good opportunity for growth, as ‘there are a lot of tram companies across Europe that we could do business with’.
ECR already has extensive rail experience from supplying on-train catering providers, where ‘we have pretty much got all the business in the UK’, said Pont. Recent projects include developing an EPOS unit for Austrian Federal Railways which can cope with the different countries where ÖBB services operate, and it is now deploying an upgrade to enable passengers to use a mobile device to order food to be brought to their seat. A similar system is to be supplied to LNER in the UK.