Mobile ticketing platforms offer improved transit convenience

Friday, January 13, 2012

The recent incorporation of cloud technology in mobile ticketing applications is making travel more affordable and convenient for customers.

Translink, Northern Ireland's main railway company, recently launched mLink, its new mobile application that does away with the need for any type of paper confirmation. According to Rail.co, Translink group chief executive Catherine Mason said "Tickets can now be purchased through customers’ mobile phones, making it both simple and safe to purchase tickets anywhere at any time without any time spent queuing at ticket offices."

With proper firewall management and remote access services, it will also be possible for vendors to sell tickets directly though the use of their mobile devices. Imagine a scalper selling verified tickets on a tablet instead of in a back alley. mLink already offers such paperless ticketing, requiring ticket holders to simply show an image on their phone to a railway employee. Cloud services might soon even remove this formality - a "smart train" would be able to scan travelers' devices for passes and tickets.

Cloud computing is changing the way people think about purchasing tickets. Smartphones and mobile devices are providing the backbone to this innovation, and the cloud will soon become the go-to market for efficient and reliable ticketing.