Chiltern Railways is to trial ‘ticket-free’ travel after striking a partnership with travel technology company Silver Rail Technologies.
Passengers will be able to use smartphones to signal the start of their journey and Bluetooth to open ticket gates.
The traveller will be automatically charges the best price for their journey at the end of the day. At un-gated stations geolocation tools are used to locate the customer and the trains travelled on.
Dave Penney, managing director of Chiltern Railways said: “Customers want to travel easily with assurance that they have paid the best price; this app-based concept eliminates the need to purchase a ticket instead using Bluetooth and geolocation tracking to determine journeys taken charging the best value fare at the end of the day.
“We chose to work with SilverRail as they share our drive for innovation and are an incredibly agile and innovative, rail focused organisation with a wide range of experience.”
The Chiltern app will also offer personalised, real-time travel updates, commuter advice and multi-modal journey options.
“Our goal is to remove uncertainty and frustration to create a relaxed, stress-free journey for Chiltern’s commuters" says Carmel Roche, head of mobile at Silver Rail Technologies.
The pilot will be conducted on Chiltern’s newly built route between Oxford Parkway, Bicester Village station, Biecester North and London Marylebone.
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