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A BUS ticket system allowing passengers to purchase their fare on mobile phones is being tested in north Kent.
The live trial, which is the first of its kind, has been rolled out on a bus route from Dartford to Gravesend.
Customers can buy a ticket on their phone before receiving an electronic bar code in a text message.
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Passengers then swipe this code through an on-board scanner when they get on the bus.
A spokesman for bus company Arriva, which is testing the M-Ticket scheme on its Fastrack B service linking Gravesend, Dartford and Bluewater, said: "Mobile ticketing offers Fastrack customers a hassle free way to purchase their bus tickets, improving the convenience and ease of travel.
"The technology is highly secure, and works on almost every mobile phone.
"Once you've downloaded the M-Ticket application to your mobile, you follow simple instructions to buy the ticket which then appears as a barcode on the phone's screen.
"If the system proves as popular as we expect, this trial could help consign the old paper bus ticket to the waste bin of history."
The trial, which involves 14 buses, will run until Arriva has enough information to decide whether it should be implemented permanently.
The Thameside Delivery Board, which is responsible for delivering 25,000 new homes and 50,000 new jobs across north Kent in the next 25 years has backed the trial scheme.
People who want to take part in the Arriva M-Ticket trial can register online at arrivabus.co.uk/m-ticket
Anyone with a Java enabled mobile phone handset can participate.
The scheme is supported by all UK mobile phone
networks.
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