England has begun trialling a ticketless train travel system that will allow passengers to pay as they go by monitoring their location, part of the United Kingdom’s plans to upgrade its rail network.
Participating rail passengers in the East Midlands will use an app to track their location, which will automatically charge the appropriate fare based on their journey. These trials began on 1 September.
“The railway ticketing system is far too complicated and long overdue an upgrade to bring it into the 21st century. Through these trials, we’re doing just that and making buying tickets more convenient, more accessible and more flexible,” said U.K. Rail Minister Peter Hendy.
“By putting passenger experience at the heart of our decision making, we’re modernising fares and ticketing and making it simpler and easier for people to choose rail.”
Up to 4,000 passengers can opt into these trials on routes between Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham, the UK’s Department for Transport said.
Trials will also be expanded to rail services in Northern England later this month, including destinations like Leeds and Sheffield.
Scotland also began trialling a similar system in Glasgow and the Strathclyde area in January.
A potential transition to ticketless train travel is part of the UK government’s plans to modernise its rail system, according to the Department for Transport. The government aims to fully nationalise the country’s train network into a single Great British Railways operator, which it has said will save about UK£2.2 billion each year.
The U.K. and Germany have also formed a task force to plan a direct rail link between the two countries.
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