Vix Technology (Vix) is a company that designs, supplies and operates

automated fare collection An automated fare collection (AFC) system is the collection of components that automate the ticketing system of a public transportation network - an automated version of manual fare collection. An AFC system is usually the basis for integrated tic ...

(AFC) systems, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), access, payment and

passenger information display system A passenger information system, or passenger information display system, is an automated system for supplying users of public transport with information about the nature and the state of a public transport service through visual, voice or other m ...

s (PIDS) for the public transit industry. The company has designed, supplied and operated ticketing solutions for cities and operators worldwide, including

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

's Octopus card system,

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

ORCA card The ORCA card (standing for One Regional Card for All) is a contactless, stored-value smart card system for public transit in the Puget Sound region of Washington, United States. The card is valid on most transit systems in the Seattle metropo ...

system, and

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

's SL Access system.

History

In 2009, Vix Technology acquired the assets of the former ERG Group, when ERG restructured and changed its name to

Videlli Limited Videlli Limited (formerly Energy Research Group or ERG Ltd) was an Australian company that developed automated fare collection systems for transit systems. Founded in 1984 as ERG, it was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1985. Due ...

. In 2010, Vix Technology acquired ACIS, a UK-based supplier of ITS and PIDS solutions."Vix Acquires ACIS"
/ref> In 2011, Vix Technology launched a rebranding of the company, integrating all of its business under one brand "Vix".

Major contracts

Hong Kong

ERG developed the components of the Octopus card system for Hong Kong. The system was completed in September 1997 and remains the largest transit smart card project in the world with over 14 million transactions per day.

San Francisco

In April 1999 the ERG-Motorola alliance was contracted to the largest smart card project in United States to design, build, operate and maintain the

Clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "C ...

(then called TransLink) fare payment system in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. The contract encompasses the six largest transit operators, including buses, light, medium and heavy rail carriers, and ferries. Muni and Caltrain began accepting TransLink on all routes starting in September 2008.

Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes on of rapid transit lines, including a spur line in eastern Contra Costa County which uses ...

(BART) began accepting it in early 2009, followed by SamTrans and Santa Clara VTA. However, when Motorola withdrew from the contract, the MTC refused to assign it solely to ERG because it was concerned that ERG had insufficient operating capital. On 27 May 2009, the contract was assigned from Motorola and ERG to

Cubic Transportation Systems Cubic Corporation is an American public transportation and defense corporation. It operates two business segments: Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) and Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions (CMPS). History Cubic Corporation was founded i ...

. TransLink was renamed Clipper and officially launched on 16 June 2010 with Cubic as the operational partner.

Stockholm

In April 2003, ERG signed a contract with

's public transport authority,

Storstockholms Lokaltrafik Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, or more formally Aktiebolaget Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (Greater Stockholm Local Transit Company), is the organisation running all of the land based public transport systems in Stockholm County. It was previously k ...

(SL) to implement a smart card based fare collection system. The contract involved the upgrade of the current rail and metro magnetic ticketing system to contactless smart cards, together with the extension of the system to the bus network, sales outlets, and new ticket vending machines. The contract included the issuing of over one million cards. The system went into public trial from September 2008 and became widely available to the public in 2009. During 2021 SL started to phase out the system and it is scheduled to shut down by March 2023.

Singapore

In 1999, the ERG-Motorola alliance won a contract in Singapore to design and install an integrated smart card ticketing system known as

EZ-Link The EZ-Link card is a rechargeable contactless smart card and electronic money system that is primarily used as a payment method for public transport such as bus and rail lines in Singapore. A standard EZ-Link card is a credit-card-sized stor ...

for the

Land Transport Authority The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport of the Government of Singapore. History Incorporation of Land Transport Authority Land Transport Authority (LTA) was established on 1 September 1995, f ...

. On 13 April 2002, the smart card ticketing system went into full service on Singapore's public transport network. At the end of the first week in operation it was processing more than 500,000 transactions per day, a figure that has now risen to more than seven million. EZ-Link is now one of the largest integrated smart card based transit systems in the world with more than 22,000 readers in place across the five transit operators covering bus, rail and light rail.

Cape Town

Vix was appointed as the AFC technology partner in 2011 for the supply of a fully automated fare collection system for the city's new multimillion-dollar

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

system. The contract embraces the supply of all software and hardware. The roll-out commenced in October 2011.

Seattle

In April 2003, ERG signed a contract with the Regional Fare Coordination System (RFCS), a group of seven transit agencies surrounding the Puget Sound, to create and operate the smart card ticketing system known as

ORCA The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only Extant taxon, extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black ...

(One Regional Card for All). The card serves those in Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bremerton, and the surrounding areas. In April 2009, the ORCA card began processing fares for buses, light rail, heavy rail, ferries, and vanpool services. In addition to processing fares for adults, youths, and seniors, the contract includes issuing smart cards, clearinghouse services, business and institutional accounts, and operations and maintenance. Even though the system is now in the operations and maintenance phase, the RFCS continues to expand the system. Rapid Ride was added in 2009 and Seattle Monorail was added in 2019.

Other

Vix (ERG) has also designed, developed, and operated solutions in the following locations: * Ashdod, Israel * Beijing, China * Boston, USA * Bouches Du Rhone, France * Brest, France * Cape Town, South Africa * Clermont, France *

Dijon, France Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earliest ...

Gothenburg, Sweden Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has a ...

Grenoble, France lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

Tehran, Iran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the Capital city, capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is th ...

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

(Monorail), USA *London, Great Britain *

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...

Edmonton Metropolitan Region The Edmonton Metropolitan Region (EMR), also commonly referred to as Greater Edmonton or Metro Edmonton, is a conglomeration of municipalities centred on Alberta's provincial capital of Edmonton. The EMR's commonly known boundaries are coincide ...

, Canada *

Netanya, Israel Netanya (also known as Natanya, he, נְתַנְיָה) is a city in the Northern Central District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between Poleg stream and Wingate I ...

* Oslo, Norway * Seattle / Puget Sound Region, USA * Rome, Italy * Stockholm, Sweden * Tel Aviv, Israel * Toulon, France * Tours, France * Various, United Kingdom * Utah, USA * Valenciennes, France

Awards

* 2017 UK National Transport Awards: Transport Supplier of the Year - Joint Winner * 2018 Transport Ticketing Global: Best Smart Ticketing Programme Award - Winner * 2021 Australian Good Design Awards: Product Design - Commercial and Industry category - Gold Accolade * 2021 INCITE Awards: Dr Mal Bryce Tech Company of the Year - Winner * 2021 HRD Australian HR Awards: Best Remote Work Strategy - Winner

References

{{reflist, 2 Electronics companies of Australia Companies based in Perth, Western Australia Fare collection systems Australian companies established in 2009