News: Eurostar set to introduce mobile phone tickets

Flights > News > # 1651 (18/01/2008)

The Evening Standard has reported that Eurostar is to introduce mobile phone and online tickets within the next few months.
Gates at the newly opened terminal at St Pancras International are already equipped with scanning devices and customers booking online will soon be able to print tickets at home through the service.
The mobile phone scheme, which will let passengers simply scan a barcode displayed on their phone's screen, is to begin trials by the middle of the year, a Eurostar spokeswoman said.
The move comes after Eurostar ticket sales increased by a fifth since the cross-Channel train service moved to St Pancras and started running at 186mph.
The introduction of the faster London to Paris and London to Brussels services last November helped the train operator to carry a record number of passengers in 2007, up by 5.1 per cent to 8.26 million.
The Eurostar spokeswoman told The Evening Standard: "We hope the new service will give people a lot more flexibility.
"Travellers can simply print out their ticket at home and get on the train more quickly. We are also planning to extend the service to mobile phones. We hope that overall it will mean we use a lot less paper, and get travellers on to the train quicker."
Eurostar is also integrating its booking system with those of operators on the UK network, so national and international trips no longer need to be booked separately. Seven companies - Chiltern Railways, East Midlands Trains, First Capital Connect, Hull Trains, London Midland, National Express East Coast and Virgin Trains - are linked in following the installation of a new computer system.
Travellers from 68 towns and cities across the UK can order through-tickets to destinations in France, Belgium and The Netherlands. The operator aims to add Germany, Switzerland and Austria to its network by 2009.

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