70th birthday of the MPK in Nowy Sącz

Nowy Sącz, one of the oldest cities in Lesser Poland, celebrates this year the 70th anniversary of the operation of the Municipal Transport Company (MPK). This time, the celebration of the round-figure birthday of the MPK in Nowy Sącz was connected with the session of the Economic Commission of the Chamber of Commerce for Public Transport (IGKM). During the meeting, the key issue was the public transport system of Nowy Sącz, the elements of which were be described, among others, by Kamil Martin from GMV during his speech at the meeting.

Photo: Agnieszka Michalik

The long history of the MPK in Nowy Sącz constituted the basis for the discussions held during the session of the IGKM. The speakers commented on the issues related to the public transport finance: both those directly concerning the activities of the companies and those more connected with the service providers. A representative of GMV, Kamil Martin, talked about the use of the integrated Fleet Management Systems and about the billing model applied by the transport authority and the carrier. These modules use the data on the completed transport tasks, on the vehicle-kilometers travelled, on the counted stops and on the punctuality of individual vehicles. The processed data come mainly from the onboard computers with GPS modules and from the central system.

The electronic systems for passengers and public transport managers have been operating for years in Nowy Sącz. The onboard computers with GPS locators, delivered by GMV, were installed in the public transport buses in Nowy Sącz as early as in 2012. Thanks to the system of logging in by the drivers in the cockpit, it is possible to estimate the arrival of the vehicles at the stops, of which the inhabitants of Nowy Sącz (and of the neighboring communes included in the Nowy Sącz transport system) are informed by means of electronic displays and of a webpage. The data from the management system, processed by fleet managers, are also used to improve the punctuality of the entire bus network, which is beneficial for all public transport users.

In Nowy Sącz there is also a ticketing system with GMV software, which allows the configuration, from the central level, of the ticket fare, of the passenger profiles and of the reduced fares applied to him/her. Contactless cards used by the inhabitants of Nowy Sącz may be applied both as season tickets and as single tickets operating under the “pre-paid” system, whose appropriate amount for the trip is collected on the basis of the travelled route (recorded by approaching the card to the validators as boarding and disembarking from the buses).

This year’s session of the IGKM Economic Commission was organized on 14-15 June 2018 in Nowy Sącz. One of the sponsors of the event was GMV.