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Efficiently manage keys
at listed railway stations

Customer

Swiss Railway Company

Market

Transport & Logistics

Company Size

Group

Country

Switzerland

For the mobility of the future.
With a key management across the country.

Swiss Federal Railways, or SBB for short, is the backbone of public transport in Switzerland. For over 100 years, the approximately 33,500 employees of this renowned company have dedicated themselves to the challenge of shaping the mobility of the future according to its guiding principles: Simple, Personal and Connected. Today, SBB transports more than 0.84 million passengers and 185 tonnes of goods every day, making it one of the largest railway companies in Europe.

Electronic key management systems and locker systems support our customer’s employees at stations all over the country. The systems could be installed at the listed locations without any problems.

Products used:

The challenge:
listed train stations

In 2018, SBB was looking for a way to efficiently manage the keys at its stations at various locations in Switzerland. The first step was to distinguish between two basic types of keys: Room keys for conference and maintenance rooms and technical keys. Although all keys were to be kept together, it was necessary to ensure that they were not mixed up or confused. In addition to the keys, smaller objects such as remote controls for hall cranes also had to be managed securely.

An additional challenge arose from the condition of the buildings: Some of the railway stations that were to be equipped with a key management system are landmarked buildings due to their age. Consequently, no major construction or installation measures were allowed to be carried out at these locations

electronic key cabinet at Solothurn train station
key cabinets outside of meeting rooms
electronic key cabinet in zurich train station

Our solution:
Key cabinets with pedestals

Our electronic key cabinets and object management systems were able to meet customer requirements in conjunction with our ecos care cloud solution.

In order to be able to place the cabinets in landmarked buildings, the systems were mounted on pedestals. Since these are only screwed to the floor and not additionally to the wall, the protected walls did not have to be drilled into.

The use of our ecos care cloud solution was also relevant here: this option allowed our ecos webman system software to be hosted externally and the necessary LTE modem with SIM card and data tariff to be installed directly in the key cabinets. This also eliminated the need for a network cable for installation.

For the installation of the key cabinets, only a normal 230 V power connection was required. This meant that some systems could also be installed in weather-protected outdoor areas of the stations.

Key management systems for room keys were mostly installed directly outside meeting rooms.

The result:
Simple installation

The simple installation of the ecos systems with only one cable enabled the implementation of the project even in landmarked railway stations.

The individual systems are precisely adapted to the individual requirements for plug-in and object locations of each location. Above all, the modular design of the ecos locker systems made it possible for SBB to realise this without any additional effort or costs.

Thanks to the electronic and intelligent systems, all keys and objects required on-site can now be managed securely and efficiently. Various functions of our ecos webman software support the railway employees in issuing their valuable objects in a controlled manner and being able to trace them seamlessly.

Key numbers:

33,500

Employees

798

Train stations

1

Cable for Installation