the plans, customers will be able to "store" their tickets on so-called contactless credit or debit cards.
Ticket barriers will be upgraded so they are similar to those on the London Underground, where tube passengers can tap their cards to pay.
A London Underground ticket barrier
When someone reaches a station, they will simply tap their card or smartphone against a digital "reader" at the barrier. The computer will recognise that the customer has paid to travel through that location and will open, with the same occurring at their destination.
The plan would effectively end the need for paper train tickets.
Jacqueline Starr, managing director of customer experience at the Rail Delivery Group, which represents Network Rail and train operators, said the new ticketing system would "improve the experience" of travelling by rail.
She added: "The rail industry wants to respond to the needs of our customers and understands the importance of modernising train tickets so that passengers are no longer reliant on the old orange paper format.
"We are in the early stages of exploring how passengers could pay for and store tickets on their contactless credit or debit cards as part of our wider aim to improve the experience of rail passengers and move towards smarter types of ticket."
The move is part of plans to push Britain towards a cashless, paperless society in which people use cards or mobile phones to pay for restaurant meals, checking in at airports – and everything in between.
Currently passengers who book rail tickets online are required to quote a reference number or key a code into a self-service ticket collection machine before they board their train.
They are then required to keep hold of their ticket throughout their journey and, in many cases, their return ticket until they travel again.
The new system would remove the need to queue at ticket booths or print out coupons from machines in stations and return journeys would be "stored" on payment cards, alleviating the need for tickets altogether.
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