Chiltern Railways extends mobile barcode ticket trial

Chiltern Railways is to extend the use of SMS mobile phone ticketing for passengers, following the success of a three-month trial.

The technology allows electronic barcode tickets to be sent to passengers' mobile phones when they buy Chiltern Railways' 'E-day' tickets for Birmingham to London routes online. The barcode can then be scanned at the ticket gates.

During the initial three-month pilot, 6,000 mobile phone rail tickets were sold. Chiltern Railways will now introduce further automation with the installation of two scanning devices attached to the ticket gates at London Marylebone station that will automatically open the gate when passengers scan their mobile phone tickets. Previously a guard had to manually open the gate for them.

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The scanners have been supplied by Cubic Transportation Systems, which also provided the technology used by TransSys for Transport for London's Oyster Card.

Neil Micklethwaite, commercial director at Chiltern Railways, said the next stage will be to expand the mobile ticketing technology to other areas on the rail company's routes.

He said in a statement: "We have listened to our passengers and what they want is a simpler and easier way to purchase tickets for their travel. Mobile phone ticketing means easy purchases, anywhere, any time."

Chiltern Railways is working with internet retailer ts.com to make the online E-day ticket compatible with mobile phones. Mobile barcode company Mobiqa and Yorkshire-based mobile-ticketing technology company YourRail have also contributed to Chiltern's mobile ticketing project.