For the first time, MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) made available to customers the online purchase of tickets—specifically for service to The Barclays PGA Tour Event at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, NY, Aug. 21-26.

Through a partnership between LIRR and the technology firm CooCoo, LIRR passengers heading to the golf tournament could buy their train tickets online and either print them out or display their bar-coded tickets on a smartphone.

LIRR President Helena E. Williams explained: “This pilot program offers great customer convenience and allows the LIRR to test out the CooCoo technology during the six days of The Barclays event.”

Ryan Thompson, co-founder of CooCoo, said: “The Long Island Rail Road is at the forefront of the biggest change in transit technology in years. Consumers are demanding the convenience of purchasing tickets through mobile devices and on the web, and forward-looking mass transit operators are meeting that demand in creative ways like the PGA event.”

CooCoo has provided real-time train arrival and departure times via text message to LIRR riders since 2010.