The new system will be introduced place over the period of one month and carried out in stages. Elron will launch their new online sales environment first, followed by the hand-held ticket sales terminals of customer service staff and, as the last stage, new ticket machines will be set up.

According to Ronnie Kongo, the company's sales and marketing manager, the new system will offer more diverse options and at the same time make the procedure of buying a ticket clearer. "The technological capability of the system will enable us to offer a greater choice of tickets based on the needs of various passengers in the future, for instance 10-ride tickets or, in the case of online sales, tickets that are not connected with a specific time or departure, but only with the date of the voyage and the place of departure and destination," Kongo said.

"The new online environment will also make it possible to give more explanatory information to passengers than before, which is especially important where we're talking about changes connected to repairs, and to do this in multiple languages. In addition, the planning of longer trips will become simpler: the timetable search function will separately display direct trips as well as travel possibilities with transfers," he added.

The system will also be working in real time, immediately charging passengers' travel cards and the like. Currently there are still lags that may lead to misunderstandings between passengers and train staff. The change also means that tickets can be bought until up to an hour before a train's time of departure.

In the longer term, the changeover will also make it possible to introduce card payment on trains, though that system will likely be introduced only next year. At that point, the ticket machines installed on trains will also accept contactless payments, Kongo said.

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