You're reading: Ukrzaliznytsia to introduce e-tickets with QR codes for all domestic trains by 2014

Ukraine's State Rail Transport Administration, Ukrzaliznytsia, is to introduce e-tickets with QR codes for all domestic trains by the end of the current year.

This technology has been utilized for the tickets sold for Intercity+ high-speed trains in a trial mode since February 5, 2013, Yevhen Dykhne, the chief engineer of Ukrzaliznytsia’s main passenger department, said in Kyiv on Wednesday.

He said that the introduction of this technology on all domestic trains and the end of the use of registered high-security forms [train tickets printed on special forms at book offices] would save Ukrzaliznytsia up to UAH 20 million every year.

He also said 40 Motorola mobile QR code readers had been bought for the Intercity+ train project.

Answering the question about the price of such a device, he said that it is about “the price of a good smartphone.”

“About 4,000 such readers are to be bought by the end of the year,” he added.

He said the system has several document verification options: scanning, or if a document is not scannable due to defects, the ID number of the ticket can be entered into a device. Identification is also possible by a passenger’s name.

According to Dykhne, an e-ticket can be returned, as can any other ticket bought via the Internet.

Over 250 e-tickets for Intercity+ trains have been sold since February 5, 2013.

As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia from February 5, 2013, launched the operational testing of e-tickets for Intercity+ trains.

From now on, passengers can board a train after booking a ticket online, paying for it with a bank card and printing the ticket on paper. Using a mobile reader, conductors check the information and allow the passenger onto the train.

The ticket contains information on the passenger’s trip, the 20-bit number of the ticket, the last name and name of the passenger and a unique identifier of the conditions of the transportation agreement (destination, the date of departure, the number of the train, the number of the wagon, the number of the seat, etc).

A QR code is a 2D barcode with graphic information coding. It was designed by Japan’s Denso-Wave firm.

It includes different encoded information consisting of characters (including the Cyrillic alphabet, numbers, and special characters). The information could be a Web site address, a phone number, e-card, location coordinates, etc. One QR code can contain 7,089 digits or 4,296 characters.