TMC and the ultimate traveler’s experience

Elvin and Cristian are part of the business unit Transportation. It consists of two parts. One focuses on signaling, like warning lights for train, tram and metro drivers, and the systems these drivers use to communicate with their operating centers. The other one – Elvin and Cristian’s division – revolves around revenue collection systems: all hardware and software that is needed for automatic fare collection. From ticket vending machines to automatic gates and from validation systems to databases that store transactions. Hovering above all this are SCADA surveillance systems. To monitor hardware and software status. To log alerts for maintenance operators. And to make sure public transport systems remain future proof and secure.

Maintenance flags

When you think about it, there are quite a few things that may prevent you from boarding a train, metro, tram or bus with a valid ticket for your trip. A ticket vending machine may be out of paper or ink. The motor component of a gate may be broken. Or the validation unit may have connection issues. ‘When these things happen, our software flags it, so a maintenance operator can go on site and fix the problem’, Elvin explains.

System improvement

‘But our work doesn’t revolve only around problem solving’, Cristian adds. ‘Each adaptation in the hardware requires a software update as well. Imagine ticket vending machines that can handle 10, 20 and 50 cent coins. When they get an additional physical component to provide change in one euro coins, all of them will also need a software update for this to work properly. To flag malfunctions and full or empty cash boxes.’

‘These data are stored locally for maintenance teams to act on’, Elvin continues. ‘But we also keep them in central databases. Because looking into the usage of gates and vending machines can provide valuable insights for our customer’s data analysts. For example about popular walking routes in a given station.’

Cybersecurity

Alongside these system data, traveler’s data are also stored in a central database. Mostly transaction data of every person who boards a train, bus or metro or tops up his card. This information is used to keep track of a person’s balance and deduct fare prices according to the distance traveled. Of course, this is quite sensitive, personal data. So, cybersecurity plays an important role in Elvin’s job, too. He went on site at a customer, for example, to improve data encryption in a metro fare collection system.

Autonomous and entrepreneurial

The experienced Cristian and TMC starter Elvin form a strong team. In fact, Cristian’s team leading duties are made easy by Elvin. ‘I am glad that Elvin integrated so quickly into the company. It worked out exactly as I had hoped when Elvin ended his job interview with a question that he impressed me with.’

‘He showed me his proactiveness by asking me what would happen when he would propose an improvement to our systems,’ Cristian continues. ‘Usually when we hire an external consultant, they do exactly what we ask them to do. But Elvin showed me that he has an intrinsic motivation to improve personally, and to help us improve the quality of our systems, too. And he showed consideration with the company. He checked if he wouldn’t be out of bounds. Well, of course not!’

Elvin adds: ‘This comes natural to me. It is the mindset that I have and that I share with fellow TMC employeneurs. And it’s also the mindset here. From my first day, which was also my first day at TMC, I have always received support and felt an openness to my ideas. Around me, I experience a willingness to work towards positive change. It’s important to me to feel autonomous, to work independently and to be able to lead some activities of my own. I feel encouraged to do all these things by all my colleagues.’