Deutsche Bahn gets ready for Touch&Travel mobile ticketing service

Deutsche Bahn is to roll out its Touch&Travel mobile ticketing service throughout Germany this November. According to a report filed by nfcworld.com, German rail transport operator is to equip its 320 long distance railway stations with `Touchpoints’ bearing NFC tags and 2D barcodes in two months or so.

Published: 29 Aug 2011

Deutsche Bahn is to roll out its Touch&Travel mobile ticketing service throughout Germany this November. According to a report filed by nfcworld.com, German rail transport operator is to equip its 320 long distance railway stations with `Touchpoints’ bearing NFC tags and 2D barcodes in two months or so.

Touch&Travel is a mobile ticketing scheme that has been running in a pilot phase in Germany since 2008.

Using Near Field Communication (NFC) the ticketing system enables e-ticketing based on NFC-enabled mobile phones. The initiative is being described as a mobile ticketing scheme with low infrastructure costs, which enables customers to use NFC-based mobile phones for fast and easy e-ticketing.

The contactless technology of NFC allows passengers to purchase tickets by bringing the mobile phone close to “Touch&Travel” Touchpoints. Data is transmitted through an existing infrastructure -- the mobile phone network -- and payment for travel is securely made. The fare is calculated automatically and the billing is done on regular basis.

Deutsche Bahn and NXP together with other project partners co-operated in the pilot phase, and chose to take it further to bring this offering to the market in April this year.

First half performance

During the first six months of 2011 the company recorded the highest revenues it ever earned in a half-year period, along with a surge in profits and a renewed increase in the number of passengers. First half 2011 revenues rose by € 2.8 billion, or 17.2 percent over the same year-ago period, to € 18.9 billion.

The number of passengers traveling via Deutsche Bahn trains rose again during the first half of the year and increased by 1.9 percent or 18.4 million to 972.5 million.

Related Reads

comments powered by Disqus