Finnish tag supplier NFC Netstore is to provide its Contact Point durable NFC tags to Deutsche Bahn for the rail operator's Touch&Travel national NFC ticketing scheme. Regional transportation operator RMV has already installed 25,000 of the new tags across the Frankfurt region.
DURABLE: NFC tags are weather and vandal resistant and can be mounted on metal. Click to enlarge
German rail operator Deutsche Bahn has picked Contact Point NFC tags from Finnish supplier NFC Netstore for the next stage of the rollout of its Touch&Travel ticketing system.
NFC Netstore has already supplied 25,000 of the tags to regional bus and rail operator Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV), for use with both RMV's ticketing app and Touch&Travel, at 11,000 locations around the Frankfurt area.
The Contact Point, or "Kontaktpunkt", tags are embedded in a patent pending structure consisting of two protective layers, to ensure they are resistant to harsh weather conditions as well as vandalism. This, says NFC Netstore, makes them "an ideal solution for public transport ticketing, outdoor advertising and mobile payment applications in parking areas."
"The Kontaktpunkt tags are naturally more expensive than plain NFC stickers, but less expensive than hard tags," CEO Pauli Tossavainen told NFC World. "Also the mounting time is short compared to hard tags."
"Based on a long-term successful cooperation we asked NFC Netstore to develop inexpensive, outdoor and vandalism resistant tags to equip our stops. We are pleased with the result — NFC Netstore delivered a very good product", says Till Sommerfeld, innovation and marketing manager at RMV. "Already now we do see more and more people using our Kontaktpunkt tags to start the RMV app or RMV's mobile portal."
"The Kontaktpunkt tags are an important element of Touch&Travel's infrastructure," adds Birgit Wirth, Deutsche Bahn's Touch&Travel project manager. "Via these the customers can check in and out for their journey using NFC technology. With the Kontakpunkt model developed by NFC Netstore we can affordably create the necessary infrastructure at stations and stops."
"The new Kontaktpunkt format has been developed as an additional variant to reduce costs and provide a high assembly flexibility," Dr Marcus Gemeinder, Deutsche Bahn's innovations project manager, has told NFC World. Touchpoints for long distance trains have now been installed across Germany, Gemeinder says. "In some regions other than the RMV, Touch&Travel has also been rolled out for regional and city traffic, such as in Sylt and Allgäu."
A "significant number" of further regional rollouts are also in the planning stages, Gemeinder added.