French Train Tickets Get USB Treatment

All sorts of stuff is going to USB, even things we might not ever think would end up with USB connections built-in. Among the things that I never expected to see go USB are train tickets. Yet in some regions of France, that is exactly what it happening. The French National Railway Company (SNCF) is trialing RFID tickets that have USB connectors built in to allow for adding money to the tickets online via the PC. The contactless tickets are said to be 8mm thick and have 4GB of internal memory. Because of its use of USB interface, the Neo Wave - the company behind the nifty idea - is able to build some advanced security features into the dongle to deter people tampering with their tickets. The system called Weneo ID Smart is currently undergoing a 1000 person trial.