22-Oct-2007 20:08:28
by Tom Godber

Chiltern Railways' passengers become the world's first to buy tickets mobile to mobile

Chiltern Railways have today announced a world first in mobile ticketing that means passengers can buy a rail ticket direct from their mobile and travel.

In January, Chiltern Railways and YourRail were the first to supply rail passengers with tickets delivered to their mobile phones. In March, together with Cubic Transportation Systems, they provided the first rail gate solution able to read mobile phone tickets. Now they have achieved another first working with secure mobile applications company, Masabi to deliver the only complete end-to-end mobile rail ticketing system in the world using EncryptME, the world's first NIST-certified mobile security software as validated by BT.

Fifty passengers have been selected to take place in this pioneering trial which will allow them to simply, securely and quickly purchase and display train tickets on their mobile phone.

David Whitley, Marketing Planning Manager at Chiltern Railways said: "We understand that our passengers want a secure and easy way to purchase their tickets on the go. This pioneering technology means that our passengers will be able to securely buy a ticket from their mobile and receive it in seconds. As the majority of our passengers all carry mobile phones, this really does mean that passengers will be able to walk up and travel anywhere, any time."

YourRail Director, David Gillick said: "Since January, Chiltern Railways, together with YourRail, has supplied British rail passengers with tickets delivered to their mobile phones. This later included a gate solution from Cubic Transportation Systems. We were the very first to do this. Now we have achieved another 'first'. A selection of Chiltern's customers can now buy their electronic tickets directly from their mobile phones in addition to on the web. This innovation, developed for YourRail by Masabi, is a highly secure and convenient method of making purchases on-the-move."

Ben Whitaker, Co-Founder and head of Security Development at Masabi said: "We have developed a completely secure way to perform transactions on a mobile phone, with a compelling user interface. Our EncryptME software sets up a secure session to sign up a new user, a new credit card and make a transaction thereby bringing fast, secure and convenient m-commerce to mobile users across virtually all handsets in current use."

The mobile ticketing trial will last two months and passengers will give regular feedback to developers.

ENDS

About Chiltern Railways

Chiltern Railways are a wholly-owned subsidiary of M40 trains, established in 1994. Since 2002 the company has been wholly owned by John Laing Group’s Laing Rail subsidiary.

We have been one of the most successful train operating companies since privatisation, running scheduled passenger services along the M40 corridor between London Marylebone and Birmingham Snow Hill and London Marylebone to Aylesbury via Amersham along the London Underground Metropolitan line.

In 2002, we extended our operations as far as Kidderminster and in 2004 we took over services between Stratford-upon-Avon and London Marylebone.

As one of the franchises forming the UK's National Rail network, we're dedicated to providing passengers with a safe, reliable, welcoming and value for money service which offers a real choice and a viable alternative to other modes of transport. Recently, we won 'Passenger operator of the year' at the 2007 National Rail Awards.

About YourRail

YourRail is a Yorkshire-based business that supplies business processes, technological solutions and acillary services to train operating companies and other retailers, that allow end customers - rail passengers - to conveniently purchase and redeem rail travel on the move and make other purchases linked to their journeys. Together with Chiltern Railways, YourRail is first in supplying the mobile rail tickets to British travellers. Companies working in collaboration on the initial roll-out are Cubic Transportation Systems, Mobiqa and ts.com.

About Masabi

Masabi is a secure mobile applications developer based in the UK. Its EncryptME security system has been validated by BT and certified by NIST, the US Government’s security standards body. In line with the latest web security standards EncryptME provides end-to-end 1024bit RSA and 256bit AES for all mobile communications by SMS, GPRS, NFC and local data storage on all Java-enabled handsets to protect all data sent over public networks or residing on stolen phones. The company’s expertise in secure, usable mobile applications which run on even the lowest specification phone handsets was demonstrated in January when it announced the rollout of international multi-language, multi-currency, multi-branded casino software for Playtech (AIM: PTEC), the world's largest publicly traded online gaming software supplier. Masabi is owned by its directors and was selected as a finalist for the Red Herring 100 Europe.

Coverage

A selection of the coverage that this release generated:

Written by Tom Godber