Forget contactless, train tickets could soon use fingerprints and facial recognition
Ambitious plans to bring train travel into the 21st Century could replace paper tickets and even forward-thinking contactless payments with fingerprints and iris scanning.
“Britain’s railway exists to drive our economic prosperity. A 21st century railway offers opportunities for businesses to grow by bringing more technology to the railway more quickly. Everyone in the railway is working together to make this plan a success," said Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group which represents Britain's train companies and Network Rail.
“The Capability Delivery Plan is an important step in ensuring that the whole railway and its supply chain collaborates efficiently and effectively to deliver the digital railway’s wide-ranging benefits, including better services for customers, more and better jobs for our people, and better value for taxpayers.”
A trial of paperless ticketing will take place on a Chiltern route between Oxford and London Marylebone this year, with a new app that uses Bluetooth to open barriers.
But this could make way for more futuristic biometric technology such as fingerprints and facial recognition the group said.