Harzer Schmalspurbahnen GmbH (HSB), together with public transport software specialist AMCON, the project-supporting company DIKS Consult, and Wernigerode-based EITIE GmbH & Co. KG, has implemented an extensive project aimed at providing waiting passengers at all stations in the network with even better and more up-to-date information about departure times and potential changes in the future. Thomas Webel, Minister for Regional Development and Transport of the State of Saxony-Anhalt, handed over a funding notification for the project implementation to HSB in Wernigerode.
Wernigerode – The HSB and the Public Transport Service Company of Saxony-Anhalt (NASA) jointly developed an ambitious and future-oriented project: the integration of the HSB, as Germany’s first steam-operated railway, into a nationwide real-time information system for local transport. The goal of the Harz railway company, which transports over one million passengers from around the world each year with its historic steam trains, is to optimize customer service. With the implementation of NASA’s existing dynamic passenger information system, all 48 stations and stops within the 140.4 km network will be upgraded with “real-time information.” This means that waiting passengers will receive information about upcoming train departure times and possible delays even at unstaffed stations.
However, integrating HSB’s historic steam trains into NASA’s INSA information system required a technical special solution from AMCON, which was implemented in two phases with financial support from the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The first phase primarily involved equipping HSB train conductors with new “mobile service terminals.” These not only replace the first generation of mobile sales devices used for onboard ticket sales, which were more than ten years old, but also serve as key control elements for the technical setup of the project’s second phase, the actual transmission of real-time data.
The second phase covered the transmission of current train time data via satellite to NASA’s computer-based operations control system (INSA-RBL) and the subsequent forwarding of this data to the individual stations and stops. At the display devices installed there, passengers now receive all important information about upcoming train departures and any delays.