Northern Irish Railways

In 2015 Northern Irish Railways appointed ECR to provide a company first: the first on-board and fully-mobile EPOS system.

The company selected ECR, as renowned specialist MPoS suppliers to the rail industry, having supplied to other TOCs throughout the UK and mainland Europe.

The solution was to deliver Northern Irish Rail with the first automated payment system dedicated to serving passengers buying food and drink on services covering routes throughout Northern Ireland and into Dublin.

ECR supplied NI Rail’s catering supplier Corporate Catering Services (CCSL) with lightweight, handheld all-in-one terminals, designed to manage the entire point of sale operation, from stock through to selling, and cash management. The devices process payments for food and drink as well as other items for sale on-board, accepting cash, card and voucher, in buffet cars and for at-seat first class service.

The web-enabled terminals take payments both on- and offline, removing any issue of connectivity on board, plus the system is fully PCI compliant giving passengers the added reassurance of secure transactions.

ECR first successfully piloted the new system and went on to equip four trains with 16 handheld units and tablets. The solution offers a wide range of additional functionality previously unavailable to crews, facilitating sales processes and enabling them to raise orders and manage stock levels whilst on-board.

RailPoS for Northern Irish Railways is designed to link into the head office system, allowing real-time tracking of sales and stock data, as well as total management of additional features notably exchange rates between euro and sterling.

“Northern Irish Railways were in search of an automated point-of-sale system and approached ECR having been impressed with the solution that we provided for other train companies. The additional stock-management functionality of RailPoS was a further benefit we could offer and we are now delighted to be providing a complete system that will greatly facilitate operations.”

Simon Pont, ECR CEO