Ticket-less travel introduced for intercity trains in Hunan

From Wednesday travelers can use a QR code from China's official railway app "12306" in place of a paper ticket when they use the Changsha, Zhuzhou, and Xiangtan Intercity Railway.

A passenger scanning a QR code on their mobile phone to get past the turnstile at a station in Hunan Province on Tuesday, October 30, 2018. [Photo: thepaper]

Instead of buying tickets in advance of their trip, travelers on these three lines can scan a QR code provided by the railway app, and then pass through a facial recognition entrance gate to confirm that their identity matches their national identity card. When they scan the QR code again to leave the station at their destination, the fare is calculated according to the distance they traveled and then deducted from the bank account linked to the "12306" app.

Facial recognition technology, seen here on Tuesday, October 30, 2018, checks the identity of passengers against their national identity card before they board intercity trains in Hunan Province. [Photo: thepaper]

The move by Hunan Province to introduce ticket-less travel on intercity trains follows similar moves earlier this year by the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Intercity Railway. In Guangzhou, passengers can swipe their UnionPay bank card or use a mobile phone payment app to check into a station.

The train fare is calculated automatically when a traveler scans the QR code on the phone to leave the station at their destination in Hunan Province, as seen here on Tuesday, October 30, 2018. [Photo: thepaper]