NJT introduced MyTix in April 2013 as a pilot program on the Pascack Valley Line, as well as between Penn Station New York and the Meadowlands Rail Station for special events, to test the functionality of the app and determine the feasibility of expanding it to other rail lines. In September, NJT expanded MyTix to the Main/Bergen County and Port Jervis lines, followed in October by the Montclair-Boonton and Morris & Essex lines, and most recently in November to the North Jersey Coast and Raritan Valley lines, as part of a gradual systemwide rail rollout of the program. Some improvements made to the agency’s MyTix app were the direct result of feedback from customers using the app during the gradual rollout. The app was designed with input from customer focus groups and NJT frontline rail employees and customer service staff.
MyTix is available for free download on any web-enabled iOS or Android operating system, via the App Store for iOS devices and the Google Play Store for Android devices. To purchase tickets via MyTix, customers must first install the app and then create an account, which will save customers’ profile information and history of ticket purchases for ease of use. Purchased tickets must be activated prior to boarding the train and displayed to train crews upon request (one-way tickets expire two hours and 45 minutes after activation; monthly passes self-activate on the first day of the calendar month and remain active for the entire month; weekly passes self-activate at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday and remain active through 6 a.m. the following Saturday). Customers transferring at Secaucus Junction or traveling to and from Newark Liberty International Airport Station scan the ticket barcode on the fare gate readers to pass through the gates.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to tap into the latest technology to improve the overall customer experience, we aimed to place our mobile ticketing app into the hands of all of our rail customers by the end of this year, and we have met our goal right on schedule,” said NJT Executive Director James Weinstein. “All rail customers now have the ability to treat their smartphones as both a ticket vending machine and rail ticket or pass all in one, providing for a seamless experience.”