20% - Assa Abloy

EMEA Division
18
Swiss Federal Railways
(SBB) has 28,000 employees
and carried more than
285 million passengers and
56 million tonnes of freight
in 2006.
Swiss Railways
switch to VERSO CLIQ
An innovative electromechanical locking system from
ASSA ABLOY will improve security and access control as
well as lowering costs for Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).
“Our existing security system is good but not perfect,”
explains Bruno Bönzli, Project Leader at SBB.
“It lacks an overarching concept and in certain cases,
security is less than perfect and our infrastructure administration
stores redundant data.”
SBB set out to remedy these shortcomings.
“We put our new access and security control project
out to Europe-wide tender and after evaluating the offers
we chose Keso AG as our preferred supplier,” says Bönzli.
Keso, a Swiss company in the ASSA ABLOY Group, is
supplying 35,000 VERSO CLIQ cylinders and 14,000 keys.
When the system is fully installed, it will not only improve
security and access control, it will also allow SBB to save
about CHF 150,000 a year in staff and operating costs.
The first VERSO CLIQ locks were installed in March 2008;
nationwide installation will be complete by July 2010.
The VERSO CLIQ system combines mechanical and electronic
elements. The key has a built-in mechanical code
and contains an electronically coded microcircuit with a
battery, and a matching electronic chip is located in the
cylinder. With this system unauthorized duplication of keys
is impossible; the system can be adapted rapidly and inexpensively
to future expansions or organizational changes
by re-coding the microcircuit. Cable-laying and alterations
to buildings are not needed since the battery in the key
supplies the current to operate the lock. Authorizations,
with time and/or spatial restrictions, can be assigned to
individual people. Locks in non-critical security locations
work with the mechanical portion of a key alone, while
critical installations need both portions.