In the last few weeks alone, orders for well over US$100 million of contactless (ie RFID) smart cards and associated systems have been placed. The business is surging forward with the percentage of smart cards that are contactless rising to 16% of deliveries in 2007 after having been stuck at around 5% for the preceding twenty years.

One can even foresee the day when those buying smart cards with contacts will be asked to explain themselves. Something intolerant of this slightest amount of moisture or misorientation, that has to be put in a slot the right way up and the right way round and that has more ways in for the criminal (all those contacts) - that was certainly not the vision of the inventors of the smart cards nearly 40 years ago.

Why use it? The lame reply about having the old infrastructure and not being able to afford the contactless one is the nearest to a valid excuse. A high proportion of new purchasers now seek the lower cost of ownership and the user friendliness of contactless cards and the orders are flooding in.

The success of contactless card payments in the USA in 2006 was been such that Visa described its Visa Contactless product as "one of the most rapidly adopted payment innovations in Visa history". Since contactless bank card payments were first introduced in earnest in 2004, over 13 million MasterCard, Visa and American Express-branded cards have been issued. They are accepted at over 30,000 US merchant locations. Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo have led the way.

The market potential is huge - research by McKinsey, commissioned by MasterCard, indicates that about 2.5% of all cash transactions in Europe currently fall between €5 and €15, (about US$7-18) and that around 40% of these could potentially be carried out by card.

Such was the success of its UK contactless card trial in 2006 - which found that using a contactless card could have transaction times to less than five seconds - that MasterCard announced in November 2006 that it would be extended to the bank's London offices. Further, a MasterCard trial will be conducted in Toulouse, France, to test an EMV-enabled multi-application RFID card. MasterCard will work with LaSer Confinoga. Galeries Lafayette and Monoprix stores throughout the city.

Visa has also recently announced that it will roll out contactless cards in Europe in 2007 concentrating its efforts initially on London. With Barclays Bank and Transport for London it will introduce an integrated travel and payment contactless card, which customers can use to purchase items under £10 (about US$19) and to replace Oyster travel cards on the city's underground and bus services.

Visa finds that London has all the pre-requisites for use of contactless stored value bank cards, including a high level of commuters using public transport, a large student population, residential areas, offices, a large penetration of target merchants and the 2012 Olympic games coming up (of which Visa is a sponsor).

For more read Contactless Smart Cards and Near Field Communication 2007-2017 and attend RFID Smart Labels USA 2007, Boston, Feb 21-22 with dedicated smartcard/NFC lectures or visit http://www.idtechex.com

A three month pilot is now launched where passengers can purchase Chiltern's £5 online Eday ticket for journeys between London Marylebone and Birmingham Moor Street or Stratford -upon-Avon, via the website www.chilternrailways.co.uk.

Passengers receive their ticket in the form of a barcode sent directly to their mobile phone by an SMS text message. Staff on board the train and at London Marylebone station will be able to check the 'mobile ticket' with special barcode scanners.

Commercial Director for Chiltern Railways, Neil Micklethwaite said: "We are happy to be leading the industry as the first train company in the United Kingdom to sell this new format of mobile phone ticketing to our passengers.

"We have listened to our passengers and what they want is a simpler and easier way to purchase tickets for their travel. Mobile ticketing will mean easy purchases, anywhere, any time. "There are many benefits to mobile phone ticketing but the most important to mention is that it's simple and convenient providing lower cost tickets for our passengers giving the customer even greater value for money. "The next step is to install new scanning gate technology at Marylebone station which will allow passengers with mobile phone tickets to scan their own 'mobile tickets' as they walk through the ticket gates," Mr Micklethwaite said.

Mobile phone ticketing is now available for Chiltern passengers for the next three months with the objective of making this service permanent. Ticket purchases on the move from mobile phones will be possible at a later stage, as well as via the internet and other retail channels.

E-Day is Chiltern Railway's cheapest ticket from Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon to London (and vice versa), costing a flat rate of £5. It can only be bought from the Chiltern Railways website 24 hours in advance of travel.

Birmingham to London for a fiver!

· Get your ticket sent direct to your mobile phone!
· Prices held at just £5 single
· Hundreds more seats now available on up to 28 trains a day
· Bookings close just 24 hours before departure
· Only available from the Chiltern Railways website

ts.com Sales and Marketing Director David Oates said: "We are delighted to be working with Chiltern Railways on this mobile ticketing innovation. We are continuously working with our clients to provide them with innovative ticketing solutions that meet the needs of their business and improve the service they can offer their own customers.”