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A pay-as-you-go-train ticketing system that follows the passengers' trips via GPS and calculated at the end of the day is to be tested all over England.
Instead of buying tickets at the train station or on your phone, the passengers scan a barcode in an app when going through ticket hours. Your trips will be followed via the location on your phone via GPS (Global Positioning System).
The digital ticketing system of location tracking hopes to replace the need for tickets, the modernization of rail travel and save passengers when traveling.
Railway Minister Lord Peter Hendy said: “The railway ticket system is far too complicated and overdue an upgrade to bring it into the 21st century.
“With these attempts, we do exactly that and make the purchase of tickets more convenient, accessible and more flexible.
“By placing the experience with passengers at the center of our decision -making, we modernize the tariffs and the ticket and make it easier and easier for people to choose the rail.”
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Scotrail has tested a similar system since January and calculated the cheapest tariffs for passengers at the end of their trip (Andrew Milligan/Pa Wire)
The attempt begins on September 1st on the East Midlands Railway between Leicester, Derby and Nottingham and will be expanded to Yorkshire to Yorkshire at the end of September to expand Northern Rail Services between Harrogate, Leeds, Sheffield, Doncaster and Barnsley.
Up to 4,000 participants can join the tests by registering on websites of the train operators. According to Oli Cox, the head of the commercial strategy and business planning at East Midlands Railway, more than 500 people have already registered interest in the system.
In February, Lord Hendy said: “We saw the success that contactless ticketing has to navigate the trips more easily and win more people to our railways.
“It is only right that we are now trying to expand the contactless ticket to other major cities in the north to ensure that you can use the economic advantages that offers easier ticketing offers and that passengers have a better experience.”
Similar systems have already been tested in countries such as Switzerland, Denmark and Scotland.
In January, Scotrail started testing its “Tap & Pay” system in the area of Strathclyde and on routes between Strathclyde and Edinburgh. Similarly, an app gives you a barcode to go through the Ticket gate and calculate the cheapest fare for your trip as soon as you have reached your goal.
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