Vodafone has struck a partnership agreement with Bharat BPO, an Indian national rail company, enabling M-Pesa customers to pay for tickets on their mobile phones.

Bharat BPO already has an SMS-based ticket booking service (SMS 139). Customers of M-Pesa, a money transfer service, can now use their ‘M-PIN’ to authorise transactions on the SMS 139 app.

In case of cancellations, refunds get credited back to the customer’s Vodafone M-Pesa wallet.

“This partnership will help open up and extend the convenience and efficiency of e-commerce and online services to those unbanked millions who use cash and are otherwise excluded from this eco-system,” said Suresh Sethi, head of Vodafone M-Pesa, in a statement quoted by The Economic Times.

SMS 139 app users can also check ‘PNR status’ (which tells customers whether their ticket is confirmed, wait-listed or reserved) and look up expected times for arrival and departure.