UK train companies are to launch a trial to take bookings through mobile phones this month.
The trial will start later in April with Midland Mainline the first train operating company (TOC) to take part with thetrainline.com, the UK's online booking engine for rail travel.
Adrian Watts, thetrainline.com's director of sales and distribution, said he expected other TOCs to join the trial.
This was the first of three steps to make more use of technology to book tickets on trains.
The second will be the use of smart cards from 2008 and then, two to three years on, the combining of both mobile and smart card technology.
Mr Watts said with the first step, travellers could make their reservation through their phone on a trainline.com pilot site and print their tickets at home or in the office.
"More and more train operating companies will join the pilot scheme and shortly thereafter we will migrate onto the full trainline.com site," he said.
Under the second phase, South West Trains, which has been re-awarded its franchise, will introduce smart card technology for season tickets in 2008.
Under government requirements, companies winning new train franchises in the UK must be smart card enabled.
Under the third stage, which has no firm date, travellers will be able to use in effect their mobile phone as a smart card.
Mr Watts said the technology was already there for these innovations.
Deutsche Bahn (DB), the German rail network, introduced a scheme last August for travellers to use their mobiles as their train ticket.
Customers have to register with the BD website and can then use their phone to book up to ten minutes before departure.
They can pay with their credit cards and are immediately sent their booking reference to confirm their reservation. The train conductor can check this reference with his scanner.
A spokesman for DB said about 100 people used this service a day, compared with the 40,000 who bought tickets for trains online.
DB is to start a "Touch and Travel" trial this October on the ICE Berlin-Hanover line and some local routes where customers can use their mobile phones.
The systems works in a similar way to the London Oyster card where travellers touch in and out at the start and end of each journey.
In Germany, travellers will use their mobiles for this at "Touchpoints" at each station and then be billed at the end of the month for their travel.
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