38C3 Community Stages

What's inside my train ticket?
2024-12-30 , Stage YELL
Language: English

Ever wondered what data is stored inside DB print-at-home train tickets or those in your local transport association's app? Join me for the deep dive into digital railway ticketing you didn't know you needed.


After getting my shiny new Deutschlandsemesterticket from University I was so annoyed with the quality of the SaarVV app that I set out to put my train tickets into Apple Wallet - whether the train companies wanted me to or not.

What followed was several weeks of banging my head against the wall and googling various terms with "filetype:pdf" until I understood how they're encoded.

This talk is a highly condensed executive summary of the most interesting parts of that journey - from the surprising to the downright weird. Finally, I'll cover how you can issue your own train tickets - for fun and absolutely no profit!

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