Skip to main content

Denver RTD opts for wireless AVL and payments

Canadian company Sierra Wireless has deployed its InMotion Solutions oMG Mobile Gateway for Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD) to support mobile broadband access for automatic vehicle location (AVL) and smart card fare payments aboard more than 1,100 buses in its fixed route fleet. One of the top 20 public transit agencies in the US, the RTD provides services to residents across an eight county metro area, from the bus and light rail services to the free MallRide and specialty services.
October 15, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Canadian company 7884 Sierra Wireless has deployed its InMotion Solutions oMG Mobile Gateway for Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD) to support mobile broadband access for automatic vehicle location (AVL) and smart card fare payments aboard more than 1,100 buses in its fixed route fleet.

One of the top 20 public transit agencies in the US, the RTD provides services to residents across an eight county metro area, from the bus and light rail services to the free MallRide and specialty services.

The InMotion Solutions oMG Mobile Gateway connects mobile equipment for RTD’s smart card fare system and new bus AVL system over both a Sprint cellular broadband network and new 802.11n garage-area wi-fi networks. It supports real time communications while buses are on the road and bulk data transfer automatically upon return to the garage. The management system enables managers to see how much data is being transmitted, which network is being used, and allows IT teams to update configurations remotely.

“We wanted a carrier-agnostic communications platform that would allow us to grow and upgrade as wireless technology changed,” said Tom Hughes, RTD’s manager, Intelligent Transportation Systems.

“RTD coordinated planned investments in its new fare system and bus AVL solution to deploy a very flexible, high-performance wireless communications solution that can ultimately serve all systems aboard its fleet,” said Scott Davis, vice president of Worldwide Sales, Enterprise Solutions for Sierra Wireless. “RTD now has the mobile communications technology, management systems and the organisational expertise to efficiently deliver reliable communications to new onboard systems using the latest broadband wireless technologies.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Inmarsat’s heavenly solution for connected vehicles
    October 11, 2016
    Inmarsat is at the ITS World Congress with some good news for vehicle manufacturers: Satellite communications can offer fast, over-the-air updating of connected and autonomous vehicles world-wide. Joel Schroeder, vice president of Inmarsat’s connected car program, said: “If the vehicle manufacturer discovers a problem or there is a security breach, then they need to fix it quickly. But the traditional way is to trace and contact all the owners of the affected vehicles and schedule visits to the dealer – an
  • Urban utility
    July 24, 2012
    Steve Lane, Commercial Director at Triteq, talks about the successful deployment of ZigBee in Barcelona where a low-cost wireless metropolitan network for location and citizen services was established. The project, he says, demonstrates ZigBee's effectiveness as an urban communications system solution ZigBee is based on the IEEE radio frequency standard 802.15.4 - 2006 for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN), which provides a license-free radio frequency for a flexible, robust private wireless network. Z
  • Arcontia Mifare Plus system for Nicaragua
    May 23, 2013
    All 834 city buses in Managua, Nicaragua, are to be equipped with one of the most modern fare collection systems using Arcontia’s Mifare Plus smart cards and NXP’s Mifare AV2 Sam technology, together with Arcontia’s ARC3300 T5 ticket validators. Arcontia’s local partner, prepaid mobile money transfer/payment service company, MPeso has been chosen by the city of Managua in Nicaragua to design and operate their first and major electronic ticketing scheme in the country based on Arcontia’s contactless smart ca
  • GMV to modernise Rabat’s bus transit system
    July 17, 2019
    GMV is to provide fare collection, fleet management and passenger information systems for 350 buses operating in Morocco’s capital Rabat. The technology business group is carrying out the project in support of an agreement between Spanish transport operator Alsa and local firm Citybus Transport to manage Rabat’s urban transport system. GMV says its advanced fleet management system will allow the whole service to be managed and monitored based on vehicle positioning information. The fleet’s movements will