German transport company Kommunalverkehr Rhein-Nahe relies on INIT’s integration competence

KRN’s contracting authorities, the two districts of Bad Kreuznach and Mainz-Bingen and the city of Bad Kreuznach had set the goal of improving and expanding public transport offerings in the Rhein-Nahe region. This is why they set up the new transport company and almost doubled the public transport services from just over 7 to 14 million scheduled kilometers. KRN’s second goal, in conjunction with INIT was to push digitalization: Passengers benefit from cashless ticketing in accordance with the German standard VDV-KA as well as open-loop ticketing with credit and bank cards (EMV). For voice and data communication between the vehicle and the control centre, KRN also relies on a digital solution with Voice-over-IP.

Given the short time frame until October 2022, KRN and INIT were initially focusing on those operational areas that were essential for the golive. These include planning, ticketing and operations control. In configuring the IT systems, KRN has relied on the proven INIT solutions successfully in use all over the world. This is especially true of the operations control system implemented in its next generation version. MOBILE-ITCS nextGen not only allows dispatchers to work more intuitively and quickly but, once KRN transitions its fleet to e-mobility, will also enable them to monitor e-buses.

The first step in the implementation of the system was to set up a “private cloud” to host INIT’s systems. The advantages over a public cloud solution are clear: The renowned Tier3 data centre, which houses the servers, is located in the Karlsruhe area and therefore offers secure data access under German legal regulations. In addition, both the data centre provider and INIT are ISO/IEC27001 certified and follow IT security requirements.

INIT’s planning and data management system supports KRN to set up fundamental data that is required for the overall system and to carry out timetables, blocks and duty planning. A special module within the personnel dispatching system enables KRN to coordinate its partner companies, to which it contracts 49 per cent of its trips. INIT’s analysis and statistics system is available for the required revenue sharing.

In addition to software, INIT also supplied the necessary hardware: The fleet’s buses were equipped with the PC-based ticket printer and on-board computer EVENDpc3, with PIDvisio3 multimedia displays for passenger information and the ETHERNETswitch for fast Ethernet in the vehicle. The need to prioritise due to the tight time frames did not prevent KRN’s managers from planning ahead: further projects are already underway such as the incorporation of cash deposit machines, the introduction of INIT’s passenger counting system and a video system from Derovis, another INIT Group company.