America's Busiest Commuter Railway System Moving to E-Tickets

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Image: Masabi

By Adario Strange2014-05-05 22:29:05 UTC

Passengers on New York's Long Island Railroad (LIRR) and Metro-North Railroad systems will soon get a boost of smartphone-powered efficiency, thanks to a new e-ticketing system in the works.

The new system will allow passengers to use their smartphones to purchase and validate e-tickets on the railway system.

See also: First Touchscreen Subway Maps Installed in New York City

"Being able to buy tickets and display them through an app will make it that much easier to take the train, and it will mean that customers who aren’t carrying cash can still buy a ticket while on the go," LIRR president Helena E. Williams said in a statement.

Masabi, a mobile-ticketing platform that develops apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone devices, won the six-year contract to work with the MTA on the new ticketing system on Wednesday.

An MTA representative told Mashable that there is currently no set date for when the system will be officially introduced to passengers.

If you've ever ridden the LIRR — or most U.S. railroad systems, for that matter — you know that it remains one of the last remnants of an earlier time in American history when handing over your paper ticket to a railway conductor inspired the same sense of adventure that flying in an airplane holds for many passengers today.

Moving to an e-ticketing system is the MTA's acknowledgement of the dominance of smartphones over vending machines, and signals the potential end of paper tickets on America's busiest commuter railway. The LIRR served over 83 million riders in 2013, according to Newsday.

"By transforming smartphones into vending machines, we are making waiting in line a thing of the past," Masabi CEO Ben Whitaker said in a statement.

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Topics: apps, Apps and Software, e-ticket, electronic ticket, Mobile, railroad, railway, smartphone, Tech, trains, Travel & Leisure