DB and German cities make big bet on NFC

Touchpoints are provided to allow travellers to check in with their mobiles at the begining and end of their journeys.

Touchpoints are provided to allow travellers to check in with their mobiles at the begining and end of their journeys.

At the end of last year, the board of German national transport operator Deutsche Bahn quietly made a major commitment to roll out its ‘Touch & Travel’ mobile phone based payment and ticketing project. The NFC based system was early piloted in 2008, with 200 users on the Hanover to Berlin line and in the city of Potsdam. It was then extended to cover travel between the cities of Cologne, Frankfurt, Hanover and Berlin in 2010. Alongside this, the Berlin regional transport agency...