Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national rail operator, is getting ready to have you check your own ticket instead of showing it to the conductor. The railroad is calling it “Comfort Check-in.”
If the test is successful, most passengers on long-distance trains won’t need to fish out paper or mobile tickets, and conductors will have more time to deal with customer service. Instead, you find your reserved seat, and use the My Tickets section of DB’s app and the train’s WiFi to check in to your seat. Passengers without reserved seats, or who just prefer showing tickets, will still be checked by the conductor.
For now, the test is limited to high-speed ICE connections from Dortmund to Stuttgart, Stuttgart to Essen, Hamburg to Berlin, and lastly between Hamburg and Munich. But it could be quickly expanded to more WiFi equipped trains soon.
Photo: Greg O’Beirne/Wikimedia
