High-tech fare collection for Dallas - contract awarded to Seblumberger by Dallas Area Rapid Transit and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority - Brief Article

Railway Age, Feb, 2000

A complex and technologically advanced smart card ticketing system will be installed on rail transit lines in Dallas and Fort Worth under a $7.5 million joint contract awarded to Seblumberger by Dallas Area Rapid Transit and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority.

This will be North America's first complete turnkey, fiber-optic-linked, frilly integrated automated fare collection installation. The contract calls for the system to ultimately handle a maximum of 400 machines that would serve all current and projected LRT and commuter rail lines. There will be a direct, point-to-point, fiber-optic link from each TVM (ticket vending machine) to a Central Data Collection System using secure fiber optic connections.

Initially, 65 TVMs will be placed in stations on DART's North Central and Northeast Corridor light rail extensions and on Trinity Railway Express. Installation at TRE stations is expected to be completed by March 2001 followed by the initial phase of the DART installation in October 2001. Schlumberger previously supplied 56 TVMs for DART's light rail starter line.