Operating from the summer of 2019, the first Caronte & Tourist terminal of the Villa San Giovanni-Messina maritime connections

The objective is to automate and speed up the toll payment and boarding processes on the ferries of the Villa San Giovanni – Messina section, optimizing the resources and operational management costs of Caronte & Tourist.

The leading company in maritime connections to and from Central Italy, has relied on Softeco Sismat, which in the summer of 2019 completed and delivered the first terminal (Villa Agip) planned in a large digital reorganization project of the port terminal activities of Villa San Giovanni for maritime transport to Sicily.

The works, carried out by the Green Mobility business line of the TerniEnergia Group’s digital company, were completed in line with the operational schedule, envisaged in the contract signed in January 2018 and which will be completed in 2020 with the activation of the Villa Mare terminal.

The construction of the plant, which represents the state of the art of digitization and automation of classification services, access control, vehicle routing, payment of travel and boarding passes, provided for the supply of ticketing solutions (ticketing), toll payment (smart payment) and access control.

Softeco has completed and delivered the first of the two separate terminals that make up the Caronte terminal. The plant called “Villa Agip”, provides for the channeling of vehicular traffic on lanes prepared for the recognition of the vehicle class and the payment of the toll by means of automatic tellers or Telepass lanes. Once the payment has been made, the vehicles are routed, through the ordinary road system, towards the operational terminal of loading of Villa Mare in Villa San Giovanni to proceed to the actual boarding.

Travel ticket sales and toll payment systems (vehicle lanes) were activated, integrating access control systems, automatic vehicle class recognition, automatic ticketing through cash, cash-less and Telepass systems, and finally, the routing of vehicles to the boarding terminal according to predefined scenario logics that can be activated according to the operational needs of the customer.

All the systems supplied by Softeco and purchased from Third Parties (control barriers, photocells, traffic lights, vehicle presence detection coils) have been integrated into a single automation and remote control platform based on the proprietary Rtu-GO product line. The supervision system, based on a customization of the Adverto proprietary solution, interfaces with the following devices:

  • Sigma speakers
  • Tactile license plate recognition cameras
  • TBridge tariff management system
  • Sick vehicle classification system
  • Telepass
  • Ticket reading columns
  • Ticket issue column
  • Lane occupation camera

Softeco has provided the turnkey system inclusive of design, third-party purchases, installation, system integration and activation and tests, training courses for Caronte personnel.

The Villa Agip terminal has been operating throughout the high traffic summer season, operating regularly. The digital company of the TerniEnergia Group continues to support Caronte, managing the operational maintenance of the system.