Tobu Railway will launch a ticket gate service using facial recognition alone on the Tojo Line’s TJ Liner from 5 November. The service will cover downbound trains departing from Ikebukuro, using an authentication system based on SAKULaLa.
Tobu Railway will launch a biometric authentication service on 5 November for the reserved-seat paid train “TJ Liner” on the Tojo Line, allowing passengers to pass through the ticket gates using facial recognition alone. The service will cover TJ Liner trains departing from Ikebukuro Station on the Tojo Line.
SAKULaLa (サクララ) is a biometric authentication platform provided by Hitachi, Ltd. and Tobu Railway since 2024. It enables passengers to enter and exit ticket gates using facial recognition without taking out a smartphone or IC card. Facial recognition ticket gate operations have previously been introduced on the Tobu Utsunomiya Line.
To use the TJ Liner service, passengers must register a facial image with SAKULaLa in advance and link their TOBU POINT ID to SAKULaLa. The group also plans to promote the use of authentication at Tobu Store and other group outlets.
As a campaign to mark the service launch, users who use the service during a specified period are expected to receive 50 TOBU POINT points.