40 new Parkeon ticket vending machines will contribute to changing the transport landscape in Mulhouse, (France).

In autumn 2005 the deployment of new ticket vending machines (TVMs) will begin on two lines of the TramTrain urban tramway network in Mulhouse and its suburbs. This first deployment phase ends in April 2006 with the commercial launch of the first 12 kilometres of the network.

The TVMs have been designed by the French company Parkeon, one of the major players in the field of automated sale of public transport tickets in Europe. Parkeon is also world leader in on-street parking pay & display terminals. A guarantee of security and ease of use for both public transport users and the SITRAM (Syndicat Intercommunal des Transports de l’Agglomération Mulhousienne – Mulhouse urban area inter-community transport syndicate), which selected the company for its industry-wide recognised expertise in unattended automate systems.

The state-of-the-art equipment, both in terms of design and accessibility standards, particularly for people with reduced mobility, comes from Parkeon’s new Astreo range of TVMs.

“First of its kind in France, our TramTrain will combine performance and creativity as well as being decorative. It will allow public transport to develop, and thus contribute to a better quality of life and a new dynamic in the Mulhouse urban area,” enthused Jean-Marie Bockel, senator and mayor of Mulhouse and president of SITRAM.

Parkeon was chosen for the “good technical quality - price ratio of its offer” and also “because the ticketing system will be able to develop into an interoperable ticketing system in conjunction with the other regional transport actors, when the connection to link Mulhouse with communities in the Thur valley is put in place,” explained Yves Laurin, Director General of Soléa, the public transport network for the Mulhouse urban area, and TramTrain project coordinator.

“From a technical point of view, the machines are the visible part of a mature automated ticketing system that is ideally suited to the problems the tramway presents,” stated Yves Chambeau, President of Parkeon. “In fact they benefit from the know-how acquired by Parkeon on numerous projects such as those in Bordeaux, Grenoble and Caen,” he added.

From 2006, residents in the Mulhouse urban area will find the 40 new machines in some 20 stations on their new tramway network.