Passenger Information System of the future

FOCON recently launched its latest Passenger Information System (PIS/CIS) platform built by use of ‘customer’s voice’. With the help of key industry knowledgeable people such as passengers, train builders, operators and consultancy companies, FOCON has achieved an in-depth insight into current and future needs within rolling stock and built their newest PIS/CIS generation around it.

The platform is built to meet the fast-changing world that is approaching us; it’s market leading in features and updateable moving forward; it’s supported so lifetime cost is optimised as much as possible.

A changed world is approaching us
Over the past decades the rolling stock industry has changed radically. Although demand for public transport is increasing, industry conditions have changed. Whilst rolling stock was previously technically simpler, less regulated and whose lifetime costs were not key considerations, the world of today has changed.

The primary ‘driver of change triangle’: The technological development, the financial changed context & new stricter legislation and standards

The technological development is going faster than ever, new technology is released every day, new processors with higher capacity, touch screens, software etc. The fast developing technology brings with it a high rate of obsolete issues not seen in the past where things were simpler in their design. The technology of today is outdated tomorrow.

The financial context has also changed; in particular, the latest financial crisis has brought focus on ‘smart and effective investments’, and a new focus has been raised where focus is not only on the initial investment to be made, but also the lifetime cost of an investment. In the rolling stock industry a minimum lifetime of 30-40 years is a standard condition – Imagine what a difference even a few percentage points adds up to when measured over several decades...

The third big driver of change is new legislation and standardisation: legislation like disability acts (in Europe referred to as TSI-PRM) or new standards within safety regulations e.g. SIL (Safety Integrity Level). Compliance with these changing legislation and standards requires not only adapting products but also comprehensive testing and documentation of compliance.

In the past when new rolling stock was bought very few had focus on standardisation and lifetime cost. Most purchases were customised solutions that today stand as high cost due to their individual need for update to new legislation, standards etc., and further they are faced with high obsolescence and updating costs that may only apply to these one-off solutions.

Market-leading platform
FOCON has done something new; We ask questions and listen to our customers, the train operators, train consultancy companies, service providers and passengers. We looked ahead and imagined the need in 10-20 years and used that as off-set to start building towards it already from today. At FOCON we put adaptability and whole-life cost as first priority.

The result is a market-leading platform, customisable but yet built on proven modules, which offers optimum and effective solutions today and also in the future, as it may be built on as needs change.

As we imagined the future and is building the platform on customers’ comments that “we would imagine having such system in the future”, we appropriately named our new platfor ‘IMAGINE’.

FOCON – an innovative market leader
FOCON is today a market-leading solutions provider. Our core capabilities are integrated solutions consisting of total project management, software programming and software-friendly hardware. The newest platform is IP-based and include options such as infotainment, CCTV and disrupting messaging.

As an innovative IRIS and ISO-certified trendsetter, FOCON is an excellent choice for those seeking solutions for the future – solutions that may be built on going forward and that may be run at a highly competitive level of lifetime cost.

Do you know…
...that customer case studies have shown a reduction of lifetime cost up to a factor of 2 - 3...

IMAGINE that you can get a solution that you can build on going forward, one you can extend when desired, one that is less susceptible to obsolescence, one that has a life cost several times less than you have seen in the past decade.

We proudly present our new IMAGINE PLATFORM