GMV modernizes Rabat’s urban transport system

The Spanish company ALSA, in a joint venture with the local firm CITYBUS TRANSPORT, has been awarded the contract for delegated management of Rabat’s urban transport system. The technology multinational GMV has then been chosen to set up intelligent transportation systems in Rabat’s fleet, to improve service quality and streamline the new operator’s management procedures.

GMV now boasts over 20 years’ experience in developing technological solutions tailored to meet the needs of operators and public-transport authorities. This proven expertise has been a crucial factor in the decision to award it this contract within the modernization of Rabat’s urban transport.

GMV will be providing the fare-collection, fleet-management and passenger-information systems for the initial 350-bus fleet, to be enlarged to 500 over the following years.

Once the bus-line network and its schedules has been planned, and after optimization of the resources of both the buses themselves and the drivers, GMV’s advanced fleet-management system will allow the whole service to be managed and monitored on the basis of vehicle-positioning information. The movements of the whole fleet will be constantly displayed on the control center’s operating posts; communication with drivers will be kept up by voice and text messages and the system will also include all necessary fleet service regulation functions.

Bus-stop passing times, calculated by the control center, will be passed on to the bus-stop information panels while drivers will be kept automatically informed of any early or late running to adjust the service accordingly.

The ticketing system is based on onboard vending of single-journey tickets and validation and recharging, also onboard, of contactless farecards, thanks to the ETC-606i-8 console supplied by GMV. Users will also be able to recharge their farecards online or using smartphone apps. By the same means they will also be able to check past transactions and remaining travel credits. GMV will be supplying a set of web services to cater for all these functions. The recharging network is rounded out with automatic ticket vending machines in Rabat’s two main stations and 20 attended points of sale distributed throughout the city.

Inspectors will be issued with 30 handhelds to help them check that all passengers have duly paid their fares and, if not, impose the corresponding fine.

Lastly, the passenger information system will be providing real-time information on estimated passing times at the main bus-stops, with an additional 120 LED-type panels to facilitate this task. GMV will also be developing a special set of web services to enable users to check all this data as well as schedules and bus routes on the website or on smartphone apps.

Users of the public transport of Rabat, Morocco’s capital and second-biggest city, are in luck. Thanks to the combined efforts of ALSA and GMV they will be provided with a top-quality, cutting-edge service to match any European city, in keeping with the ongoing needs of today’s city life.

Rabat’s is the biggest urban transport system run by any Spanish firm outside Spain, and this contract makes ALSA the top private operator of urban transport in Morocco.