Curse ze French, they are ahead of us again. This time The French National Railway Company (SNFC) is testing train tickets on a 4 Gb. USB dongle.

The USB ticket is called Weneo ID Smart. It consists of two chips. One that contains personal data and one with an ID-number, that is used when paying for your ticket.

According to plans, you can buy your ticket on your computer at home using the USB-dongle. At the same time you can copy your itinerary, travel times and other relevant information to the dongle.

If everything runs as planned Weneo ID Smart is available in 2010.

SFNC is already using RFID-based tickets that allows you to “refill” your train ticket at certain refill-stations.

The Beta News Wiki:

An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.