OREANDA-NEWS. June 27, 2011. ICBC settled an online payment by a Tianjin customer for the ticket bought via Internet for Beijing-Tianjin intercity train (C2057 on June 13). Since the start of pilot online sales of tickets for Beijing-Tianjin intercity trains, this is the first train ticket paid online, also the first online payment in the country for the train ticket bought through Internet.

It is very fast and convenient to buy train ticket via Internet Banking, said an executive with ICBC. Passengers just login the website of China Railway customer service center (www.12306.com) and register, then follow the instructions to check and book train tickets. Once finished, they can use ICBC card to sign up Internet Banking service and pay online. Railway authority will send the details of the tickets to the buyers via email or SMS.

The ICBC executive said, ICBC starts to install POS machines in all major railway stations across the country since 2010, in an effort to add convenience for passengers to buy train tickets using bank card at the railway station. Automatic ticket vending machines installed at some high-speed rail stations are equipped with the function for payment by bank card. In addition, in order to ensure the successful running of online ticket sales system, ICBC leverages its domain expertise in e-commerce and experience in air ticketing service to restructure related businesses and products based on the project requirement. The objective is to improve the business processing capacity during the period when large number of train tickets are bought. In the next step, by dint of its comprehensive service network and cutting-edge platform for electronic banking services, ICBC will work closely with Ministry of Railways about online sales of tickets and provide full payment and clearing services for Ministry of Railways' online ticketing system. Later, ICBC will roll out services for payment of train tickets bought through phone or mobile phone, offering more service channels, more convenient mobile/electronic financial services for passengers to buy train tickets.