New York’s MTA and Masabi are turning smartphones into train tickets

Since we have our smartphones with us all the time, more tasks in our daily lives are starting to make the switch to digital. In fact with apps like Passbook, Apple is attempting to reduce the need for physical coupons and tickets, and at the same time consolidating all your privilege cards into a single app. Well the good news for New Yorkers is that sometime in the future, you can look forward to paper-free train tickets, thanks to a partnership between the Metropolitan Transit Authority Board and Masabi.

Part of New York City’s train system is set to get a 21st-century kick in the pants. Digital tickets that live on commuters’ smartphones will soon be introduced thanks to a deal inked between the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Board and Masabi, one of eleven companies that offered to build such a system for the city. The pact follows a — presumably successful — trial conducted between Masabi and the MTA in 2012. Not every locomotive route will see paperless ticketing at first; only the Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Railroad are scheduled to be equipped with the new tech.