The Merto-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road, two of New York’s busiest rail services, have begun testing a new ticketing system that uses bar codes on mobile phones instead of paper tickets, according to My Bank Tracker.

Developed by mobile ticketing specialist Masabi US, Metro-North’s application enables riders to purchase any kind of ticket via credit or debit card and redeem it in the form of a scannable bar code on their smart phone.

A group of Metro-North employees are currently testing the free app, which can be used on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry handsets. Depending on how well the trial goes, the app could be available to all commuters by late 2013 to early 2014, according to the rail service.

The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), which recently undertook an NFC payments pilot, is also planning to test a bar code-based smart phone ticketing app later this week at a PGA Tour event.

Developed by Long Island tech firm CooCoo, the service allows passengers going to and from the Barclays FedExCup Playoff event at Bethpage State Park to redeem their transport tickets by scanning a bar code on their handsets. Passengers can order the tickets online and receive them via email for presentation to LIRR staff at Farmingdale Station, where they will be validated with a handheld bar code reader.

According LIRR, the service will be available from Aug. 23-26 only.

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