A UK-based company, Masabi, that provisions ticketless ticketing via smartphones and other mobile phones for trains in the UK, will be bringing its service to the U.S. this summer. Boston’s train system, run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) will be giving the Masabi system a trial run this summer and, assuming all goes as expected, the Masabi service will be deployed system-wide in the fall.
Masabi, which bills itself as a “ticket machine in your pocket” has been widely deployed in the U.K. for several years now. Says Masabi, of itself, “Masabi is the leading developer of mobile ticketing technology for the transport sector. Its award-winning ‘Ticket Machine in Your Pocket’ applications signal the end of ticket queues by allowing passengers to quickly and securely buy and display tickets on almost any mobile phone, not just smartphones. The company’s technology allows transport operators to transform their passengers’ travel experience while also dramatically expanding sales capacity without significantly increasing costs.”
While in the UK Masabi makes use of special scanning gates through which passengers pass, in Boston there will be staff on board the trains who will use their own mobile devices to scan the tickets (in the form of bar codes) that have been downloaded to the passengers’ phones.
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