Ok I know they are faster but sometimes I do miss the old fishbowl fare boxes. The cost of these fareboxes run into the thousands of dollers. also they are slow and jam when you put in nickles and dimes and heavenly pennys. Albany has a BRT line and if they had fare dispensers at the stations that would speed things up. How much is each SMART card going to cost? OH shoot this just in-$7,337,400-http://www.cdta.org/news_detail.php?id=277
http://www.cdta.org/news_detail.php?id=352
Activated those links for ya: http://www.cdta.org/news_detail.php?id=277
The main cost of these smart (RFID), stored value cards seems to be the perpetual vendor consulting fees.
Here in Los Angeles county the main transit district went 'all in' to replace all paper bus and rail tickets. It took a long time, great expense, but the result is still a Big Steaming Pile IMO.
- Apparently No One Who Actually Rides The Bus/Train was allowed to comment on the obtuse, confusing terminology and procedures used on the rail station ticketing machines and especially on the awful card management web site.
- I still am not sure how I can choose between a prepaid one trip fare and a daily fare - the transactors have no customer facing display and just Beep when your card is read. The bus drivers aren't too helpful, gotta keep the crowds loading ...
- The transit agency doesn't seem to acquire any in-house capability to make software changes, every little one is a big $CHA-CHING$ for the locked in vendor.
- Another behind-the-scenes political mess is the battle over Which participating agencies keep How Much $$ of the prepayment float. New fare or service, a new battle.
See what you get to look forward to!
Links to my Google Maps ---> Sunset Route overview, SoCal metro, Yuma sub, Gila sub, SR east of Tucson, BNSF Northern Transcon and Southern Transcon *** Why you should support Ukraine! ***
Our RavKav magnetic card seems to be working well in Jerusalem. The ticket machines seem well-planed with excellent instructions in hebrew, good instructions ini English that are adeuate for an English speaker but may cause problems for a Euorpean who may not be conversant with suble changes in meaning. I have not heard any complaints from Arab friends, so I assume the Arab instrucitons are also OK. Sure speeds up bus loading when everyone sipes a carrd instead of asking for change. The next step to have on-bus validaton like the light rail has, for the heavierst bus routes using articulated large capacity buses, with all doors available for both loading and exit.
rode a CDTA Albany bus today at rush hour. most locals know the routine with swiping now they will have to tap. For the NYS Thruway you have to buy a card for 25.00 and then load it. Still think the Fishbowl fareboxes would be cheaper but my driver said that U have to spend money to get money as in this grant money is tied to some other grant.( and some politico geting the grease)
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