Thales shows MoRSE tolling solution in Bordeaux

One of the most unusual of objects on display here in Bordeaux is undoubtedly Thales’ MoRSE (Moveable Roadside Equipment) device. The large white cylindrical box is in fact a mobile system of three technologies for tolling and road user charging (RUC).
October 6, 2015 Read time: 2 mins

One of the most unusual of objects on display here in Bordeaux is undoubtedly 596 Thales’ MoRSE (Moveable Roadside Equipment) device. The large white cylindrical box is in fact a mobile system of three technologies for tolling and road user charging (RUC).

Thales is one of France’s leading transportation technology suppliers. For instance, the company has developed a new electronic contactless ticketing system for the Bordeaux Metropole tram system, which is due to go live later this year. But the focus of Thales’ display at the 2015 ITS World Congress is “what we can do for customers on road networks”, says the company’s product line manager Denis Perret.

The MoRSE device is a result of work done by Thales to support development of France’s Ecotax national truck tolling system. The technology needed to implement Ecotax was completed and ready for launch as commissioned by the EcoMove consortium, before political pressures led the French Government to cancel Ecotax in September 2014.

“The technology and expertise is now readily available for other highway authorities to use or adapt for road and traffic management,” says Perret.

MoRSE was developed as a more cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative to installing RUC technology on gantries. The white box contains an ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) camera for capturing high definition images of vehicles, DSRC (dedicated short range communication) radio for communicating with in-vehicle units, and laser technology for automatic vehicle classification.

“The MoRSE box takes just 45 minutes to set up or remove for transport to a new location. It means there is no need for gantries and roadside equipment can be installed with a smaller environmental footprint,” Perret says.

Other technology developed for Ecotax and on display here in Bordeaux includes a vehicle data analytics platform. “This is an interactive tool for visualising and analysing vehicle and route data, part of a wider back off system for validating passage reports,” says Perret.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Joining old and new in Canada’s Highway 407
    June 17, 2016
    David Arminas visits Canada’s Highway 407 ETR to see how the concession is working and hear about new arrangements for the roadway’s extension. The Toronto region is North America’s eighth largest metropolitan area and its roads become notoriously congested. In 1997 Highway 407, a 68km concrete toll motorway which skirts the northern edge of Toronto, was opened and initially operated by the province and CHIC - a consortium of four leading Ontario-based companies. Finance came from the Ontario Financing Auth
    Read More
  • Thales partners to use big data for smarter transportation in Hong Kong
    March 24, 2016
    The Thales Innovation in Hong Kong and its partner the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has been awarded a collaborative R&D project by the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission to develop a big data platform with state-of-the-art technology. This will be used to prototype smart transportation applications, enabling current transportation challenges to be addressed: near real time crowd monitoring, predictive maintenance, etc. The Thales Innovation Hub aims to examine the c
    Read More
  • Weigh in Motion gets smarter
    January 4, 2023
    Weigh in Motion technology is at the forefront of protecting road surfaces and helping enforcement activity – but could it also play a key role in the development of Smart Cities?
    Read More
  • Integrating traffic management and tolling technologies
    April 25, 2013
    Jamie Surkont, head of road safety enforcement with Kapsch, outlines the company’s efforts to set up and align new traffic management business units with its more widely recognised tolling expertise The blurring of ITS applications’ edges brought about by systems’ increasing functionalities will ensure that many of the technologies which we have come to rely on for road and traffic management will find it increasingly difficult to exist or operate within tight market verticals. At the same time, systems man
    Read More

Highlighted Content