Japanese Railway Lines Tell Parents Whereabouts of Kids

Wednesday, September 7, 2005 Posted: 09:32 AM JST

Do you know where your child is right now? Private railway companies in West Japan aim to tell you. When children pass through ticket gates, the railways send an e-mail to their parents. The system makes use of the "PiTaPa" card, a railway pass containing an IC card. The new system is being tested since September 1.

Participants buy the PiTaPa card and register with the service, temporarily called "Goopas". When registered children pass through station ticket gates, the information is sent by e-mail to registered mobile phones within 30 seconds.

Hibarigaoka Elementary School, a private school in Takarazuka City, and Kobe based cram school Nichinoken Corporation Kansai are participating in the monitoring test.

The test is carried out by Hankyu Railway, Keihan Electric Railway and Nose Electric Railway, and will continue until October 31. It is the first time in Japan that information from ticket gates is used in this way. Whether to launch a full-scale service will be determined after studying questionnaires from participants.

For inquiries, contact PiTaPa-goopas Corp. (Tel: 06-6252-1723)

Keywords: national_news

*   *   *