YourRail has contracted London-based Masabi to build a mobile application incorporating the vendor's EncryptME technology, which enabled train tickets to be securely bought and displayed on mobile phones.

YourRail already provides a mobile ticketing system for Chiltern Railways that allows ticket purchases to be made via the Internet. The user is sent a bar code via SMS which is scanned by automatic barriers and train conductors.

The company is now looking to extend the system with Masabi's EncryptME technology so that new customers can sign up and purchase a ticket using their mobile hand-set without having to pre-register on the Internet.

A pilot rollout of the mobile ticketing system will begin in August.

EncryptME allows old and new phones to establish encrypted connections over cellular systems such as GPRS, 3G and SMS as well as short-range wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and NFC. Masabi says that BT has recently completed validation of the cryptographic algorithms used in its EncryptME tecnhology.