UK Opens Registration for GPS-Based Transport Ticketing Pilot

The UK government has begun accepting registrations for a new pilot program testing GPS-driven mobile ticketing for public transportation. Set to launch in September, this initiative marks one of the first nationwide trials in the country.

Participants in the pilot will have the opportunity to use a smartphone app that tracks their journey via GPS, eliminating the need for traditional paper tickets or contactless bank cards. Instead, travel is recorded automatically as users move through the network.

The pilot is planned to operate on specific train routes, including services on Northern Railway and East Midlands Railway, overseen by the Department for Transport. While the exact routes haven’t been confirmed yet, earlier indications suggested these lines as likely candidates  .

UK authorities view this as a natural progression in fare technology, building on the momentum of open-loop contactless payment systems (using bank cards directly) that have already been widely introduced across the country.