GMV continues to modernize public transit in Cyprus

The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works of the Republic of Cyprus has once again turned to GMV to upgrade of the country’s public transit system, consisting of 750 city and intercity buses operated by six companies under concession by the Ministry.

The relationship between the Ministry and GMV, as a technology provider, dates back to 2016, when the transit authority decided to technologically improve these concessions through a public tender, and it was GMV who secured the contract. Since then, GMV has been one of the regular suppliers of intelligent transportation system (ITS) technology to both the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works and the island’s seven public transit operators.

To further enhance the bus fleet’s current smart card system, the Cypriot government has recently entrusted GMV with a new project to implement an account-based ticketing (ABT) system. This system will allow passengers to travel smarter and ticket-free. It supports multiple identification alternatives for accessing and paying for public transportation, including contactless cards, phones, smartwatches, and bank cards.

GMV will also implement a pilot bank card payment system on buses in the Famagusta district, a city in eastern Cyprus, using EMV Transit Level 3 technology. For credit and debit card transactions, this technology validates the integration of payment terminals that are compatible with bank systems. This will be the first deployment of such a system in Cyprus. In the medium term, the aim is to deploy it across the rest of the country.

GMV will also deliver certain subsystems, such as a new topology editor based on GMV Planner, GMV’s solution for planning and optimizing transportation services, and a business intelligence tool. Finally, the project entails renovating the display boards at the main bus station in Nicosia and migrating the entire IT infrastructure to the cloud.

Another subsystem acquired by the Ministry is a monetary and operating support system (FMS) for the school bus fleets of Cyprus. Asrelevant features, this system will be supported by payment through ABT and GMV's ITS Suite platform for the fleet management part. In addition, the onboard equipment will consist of the delivery of an Android mobile application for locating the buses and paying by card within them.