The Long Island Rail Road will soon conduct a pilot program to test electronic ticketing.
Passengers will be able to purchase tickets using their credit cards and a smartphone app. Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) spokesman Aaron Donovan says the MTA wants to make buying a ticket easier.
“So it puts the whole ticketing process right in the palm of your hands instead of having to go to the station first and then display a paper ticket that’s printed out,” Donovan said.
Conductors will walk by with a scanner in addition to old fashioned hole punchers.
Donovan says the program will be tested first on certain branches of the railroad, and if successful, it will be rolled out on both the Long Island Rail Road and Metro North by December.