Amtrak is one of the largest railway companies in the US and recently made the decision to use iPhone terminals to check the tickets of its own passengers. Starting from November of last year, the company integrated smartphones in the process of checking travel tickets and until the summer wants to have 1700 controllers equipped with these devices. Controllers can either scan tickets already bought, or check tickets bought online by users, the latter being able to display only a bar code which, upon scanning, confirms their purchase.
With the new system, passengers will be able to print tickets or load a special bar code on their smartphone screens for conductors to scan, and conductors will be able to keep track of passengers on board, Amtrak said.
"You don't even need to print the document and bring it with you," said Matt Hardison, chief of sales distribution at Amtrak, who helped plan the iPhone program. "We've made a number of important improvements for both our customers and Amtrak, all in one fell swoop."
Moreover, users can check in when they get on the train, the controllers knowing how many passengers are traveling and in which seats they are seated, and the whole system seems taken out of a sci-fi movie, at least for this type of transport. For now, few routes in the US are equipped with such systems, but Amtrak plans to extend its project until the summer, but don't think that something like this could apply in Europe or even Romania in the next decade.
