Skip to main content

RFID eliminates overhead wiring for trams

A new RFID system developed by UK company Harting allows electric trams or buses to operate without overhead electric wiring in areas where it would be unacceptably obtrusive, such as historic town centres, or where it might cause interference to sensitive equipment.
May 11, 2015 Read time: 1 min

A new RFID system developed by UK company 8098 Harting allows electric trams or buses to operate without overhead electric wiring in areas where it would be unacceptably obtrusive, such as historic town centres, or where it might cause interference to sensitive equipment.

The use of RFID enables a vehicle to detect the location of a charging station in advance or to determine which operating mode it is permitted to drive in. Harting Ha-VIS RFID systems permit approach detection to a charging station with positioning accuracy of better than 50cm. In addition, the RFID transponder contains information on the authorised operating mode. The RFID transponder may be mounted on a platform, on the track or at a stop, even within concrete to protect from vandalism.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Debating contactless toll charging by smartphone
    April 25, 2012
    Developments in the mass transit sector could provide indicators of potential for greater use of mobile consumer electronic devices for charging and tolling, according to Consult Hyperion’s Mike Burden. However, opinion among toll system suppliers is divided. Jason Barnes reports The combination of mass-market devices and their protocols, typified by smartphones featuring near field communication (NFC), points to some exciting cross-fertilisation possibilities in the charging and tolling sector, says Consul
  • Sampo Hietanen’s mobility mission
    June 17, 2016
    For a decade Sampo Hietanen harboured a vision of an alternative form of mobility, now as CEO of MaaS Finland he is putting theory into practice. Sampo Hietanen has become the embodiment of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – a concept he created 10 years ago while working for Finnish civil engineering giant Destia. “I had been working with the mobile sector on traffic information and started thinking what will happen when this becomes bigger,” he says.
  • 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
  • Island Radar: safely crossing continents
    August 6, 2020
    There is a safety flashpoint wherever roads cross over railways. Island Radar is using well-established traffic technology to keep all parties safe from harm.