Amtrak's New Orleans passengers are now able to make reservations and receive their electronic tickets from the comfort of their home or office through the first Midwest expansion of the Amtrak eTicketing project, which began in November 2011 and will be nationwide this summer.

The eTicketing program provides passengers increased flexibility when making or changing reservations and eliminates the need to obtain traditional paper value tickets.

Passengers, whose eTickets will be e-mailed in a PDF format, will now also be able to use their smartphone to present their eTicket to the conductor by simply opening the eTicket PDF document from their e-mail and displaying the barcode for the conductor to scan. If a customer misplaces their eTicket, they can reprint the document for presentation on-board. Passengers can also print their eTickets at Amtrak ticket offices and Quik-Trak kiosks.

To meet this summer's goal for a nationwide eTicketing launch, Amtrak has started to train its 1,700 conductors. During this transition period, passengers may see conductors using the eTicketing Mobile Device.

Conductors will still collect and punch traditional paper tickets, and scanning these will allow conductors to become familiar with the eTicketing mobile equipment.