French railway operator SNCF has teamed with Gemalto on a service that lets travellers purchase and recharge their transit tickets using an NFC-enabled mobile phone.
Customers can use their handsets to purchase or top up transport tickets, at any time, from the online SNCF portal. Travellers who buy pre-paid tickets will also be able to check how many tickets they have remaining.
The "ticket" is stored in the phone SIM card and users swipe their handset over a reader to open the gates at stations.
SNCF is also considering offering a bundle of transport-related services on NFC-enabled phones, including ticket purchase and top-up, balance checking, real-time access to travel news and the use of intelligent labels.
Jean-Pierre Farandou, MD, SNCF Proximités, says: "Developing new generation services that are simple and offer added value will help make daily journeys easier. Our ambition is to support transport authorities in this proactive approach to continually improve public transports."
Earlier this year the UK government proposed the introduction of an England-wide smart ticketing system that will let travellers pay for bus and train journeys using their NFC-enabled bank cards and mobile phones.