Valued Cammax partner NET Keolis Nottingham, the organisation responsible for the operation, maintenance and on-going expansion of the Nottingham tram system, celebrated a big night of success earlier this month (October 5th) after winning ‘Most Improved System’ at the prestigious Global Light Rail Awards (GLRA) 2022.
Hosted in the City of London, The Global Light Rail Awards is an annual event organised by Mainspring and the publishers of the monthly international magazine, Tramways and Urban Transit. GLRA is the industry’s flagship awards ceremony and recognises excellence and innovation in the light rail sector. The annual event also honours the most outstanding projects and products from the last 12 months.
Following a hugely successful year NET Keolis were shortlisted for awards in three categories before winning ‘Most Improved System’. The judges crowned NET winners’ thanks in large part to the organisation’s work successfully renewing the entire Nottingham Trams TVM estate, in partnership with Cammax.
The judging panel were also impressed by NET’s safety initiatives including tackling anti-social behaviour and improving safety standards with tram modifications.
The GBLR award is the culmination of months of hard work for both Cammax and NET Keolis Nottingham. In 2020 NET began discussions with Cammax about the possibility of undertaking the mammoth task of replacing the existing Tram TVM (Ticket Vending Machine) network with 118 new modern TVMs.
NET’s goal was to update their estate’s technological requirements to meet modern customer expectations, increase the options for Smart Card users across the city, and incorporate the widely used Robin Hood Smart ticketing methods for all service users.
As a market leader in the design, development, and supply of payment systems, and with an impressive track record of the successful delivery of several large payment and Smart Ticketing projects, Cammax were well placed to take on the task, although the project was not without its challenges.
Due to the high volume of cash transactions and the unattended locations the TVMs were due to be installed in, it was vital that the units could stand up to rigorous usage and also deter attempts to vandalise and steal cash from the units. To address these security concerns, as well as existing safety features each unit was fitted with an intelligent monitoring module which enables NET and Cammax to monitor the status and wellbeing of each TVM unit in real time.
NET’s requirements also dictated the need for the new high security cash TVMs to be housed in the existing NET Totems which were already in place surrounding the incumbent machines.
This meant that Cammax needed to redesign the housing of our Smart Ticketing TVM so that it could fit into the existing street furniture NET already had in place. These limitations on dimensions, aesthetics and functionality meant that the Cammax design team worked tirelessly perfecting the bespoke design that could be seamlessly incorporated in the existing street furniture.
After overcoming these challenges all the new TVMs have now been successfully rolled out and public reaction to the new Smart ticketing machines has been hugely positive. In fact, according to a survey over 90% of service users indicated that they prefer the new machines to the old.
In a recent presentation delivered at Transport Card Forum 2022 Mandip Bahra, Assistant Commercial Manager at NET Keolis Nottingham, also revealed that the availability of ticketing equipment has consistently topped 98% after installation of the new Cammax TVMs was completed.
To read more about work with NET Keolis Nottingham please view the case study here.
On behalf of everyone here at Cammax we’d like to say a huge congratulations to NET Keolis Nottingham on winning the GLRA award, which was richly deserved. We look forward to seeing what other successes the next 12 months have in store!