UIC has awarded Hit Rail B.V. a contract for the provision of a new service which will allow railway companies to use a centralised ticket control system. The contract runs for a period of 5 years.
The Electronic Ticket Control Database (ETCD) will improve the ability of railway companies to issue and control rail passenger tickets across multiple countries increasing the security.
The aim is the real-time on-line exchange of ticket control information between ticket issuers and passenger carriers around the world. These exchanges increase ticket security, prevent fraud and reinforce electronic ticketing capabilities.
The ETCD service as a centralised ticket control system is provided by Hit Rail in a Software as a Service (SaaS) mode. It has been operational since February 2020 and already several European ticket issuers and passenger carriers are establishing connections to it.
UIC has 200 members on all five continents which have agreed on a common specification for the exchange of ticket control data between ticket issuers and rail carriers controlling the passenger tickets.
The ETCD service provides a central implementation of the ticket control specification, allowing UIC members to exchange information with the central system, involving less complexity and lower implementation costs on their side. The ETCD will become an important foundation for passenger travel based on the increasing adoption of e-tickets.
The new service meets the demanding scalability, performance and security objectives set by UIC. The architecture supporting the service leverages powerful cloud technologies and is designed to reach a high volume of tickets and downloads and to be capable of supporting future UIC services requiring the storing or checking of ticket data.
The technical components of the solution are deployed in a fully virtualised, leading edge, enterprise-grade cloud environment, for a high degree of flexibility in response to varying loads and future changes.
Share on:
