Downeaster’s Mobile Device Field Test

Passengers on Amtrak’s popular Boston-Portland, ME Downeaster service will be seeing something new beginning this week—a technology that will fundamentally change the way Amtrak accepts and tracks tickets.

Currently, conductors collect paper tickets from customers and carry them in their shirt pockets—a system relatively unchanged since the days when locomotives were powered by steam.  While it is true that there is a digital documentation of a passenger’ reservation, the only record of who actually boarded the train resides in the conductor’s paper tickets.

That’s all about to change.  Passengers on the Downeaster will be part of a mobile device field test beginning this week.  [See image of Amtrak’s seatback notification, at bottom]  For the time being, there will be nothing different about how customers purchase tickets.  The only difference passengers will see is the portable ticket-scanning device conductors will be field-testing, which will be used to instantly send ticket information to a central database.

First and foremost, this will increase the safety of passengers.  Accidents are a rare occurrence, to be sure, but recent accidents on the California Zephyr and the Downeaster—both caused by trucks colliding with trains—are unfortunate reminders that these incidents need to be prepared for.  Amtrak’s first responders need to have an exact manifest of passengers; know who they should be looking for and how many people are unaccounted for.  Currently, Amtrak’s emergency workers are forced to rely on a manifest of who bought tickets beforehand.  But train stations aren’t like airports, with rigid and uniform passenger controls.  They are often open, bustling centers of social and commercial activity or isolated rural outposts.  People miss trains; or buy tickets on-board; or catch later trains with an unreserved ticket.  Any delay that arises from the manual construction of a manifest from a loose assortment of ticket stubs is a delay that puts people at risk.  For this reason, Amtrak should be applauded for developing this scanning capability on its perpetually inadequate capital budget.

As for other benefits of the portable ticket-scanning devices, only time will tell.  But looking at how airlines use similar ticket-scanning technology—offering tickets that can be printed at home or carried on a smartphone—should make passengers cautiously optimistic for the coming years.