Voyages-sncf.com Storing E-tickets in QR codes
- The new version of voyages-sncf.com mobile app to be launched in October 2011 will be integrating tickets dematerialisation-related features and will be using social networks.
- It will be possible to purchase e-tickets using a mobile phone through the voyages-sncf.com app. These tickets will be stored in the Smartphone and presented as QR codes.
- The app will also be relying on a social dimension: a customisable interface should make group travels easier, enabling the addition of each passenger’s profile and displaying their respective fair rates.
- Starting November 2011, a Facebook and Twitter-related feature will also be integrated to allow customers to transfer mobile orders to their friends; this is already possible on the Internet.
- Voyages-sncf.com now proposes services reaching beyond pure commercialisation; it is opting for a customer-oriented strategy to favour bridge-building and relies on innovating technologies to do so. Voyages-sncf.com mobile app also relied on QR codes for download.
- In 2006 already, SNCF had been testing mobile dematerialisation of ticketing services in Brittany using MMS format. Payments were made using a bank card through a WAP portal (30% of the French population were then equipped with WAP mobile phones).
- In 2008, contactless flash drives have been tested by the same company to store transportation tickets (in partnership with Neowave). A second pilot test (still requiring contactless USB keys) had been launched in February 2011 with thousands of Transilien passengers and should have been carried on until 2012.
- The e-ticket had been experimented since March 2009 and had already achieved one million sales in April 2010. The SNCF aims at having the traditional mag-stripe ticket replaced by e-tickets in 2013.