I am in Albany this week. Got on bus BRT and bus driver waited for 3 miniutes while i fumlbled through my wallet for my fare.bus did not move.....need POP fare system bad....
For somebody who claims to ride transit as much as you say, I'm rather surprised that you didn't at least an amount of cash close to the amount of the fare ready to drop in the farebox before you boarded.
Part of the speed up process of loading passengers on rail and bus systems is speeding up the far paying process. Having ticket machiens at the stations speeds things up andf so is having a smart card that you tap. Albany has yet to do either.
New Jersey Transit uses cash fares. You need exact change and the fare box accepts dollar bills. You can also get a monthly pass you simply show the driver; a lot of people use the monthly pass.
Jerusalem accepts cash fares, but my observation is that very skilled drivers manage to drive the bus and stiill make change and ussue receipts. I could not do it, even on a streetcar without the need to steer, but they apparently can do it. But most passengers use the RavKav card, with stored data, either multiple fares or monthly pass stored data, and simply swipe the card against the reader, and this really speeds up loading. At certain downtown stops and the Hebrew University boarding platform, one Egged employee stations himself at an exit door with a card reader, and this allows boarding through two doors - during the evening rush. The same RavKav card is used on light rail, which has ticket machines on all platforms, issuing tickets good for one ride on light rail and on any connecting bus and buses in a 90 minute period, also you can add cash value to your RavKav card. On the train you must upon boarding validate your RavKav card for the specific trip (deducting the one-trip cash value unless a monthly pass is stored) or validate your single ticket. But you can board or exit at any door of the train. The operator does not have anything to do with fare collection on the train. There are spot security people and only one of their duties is to check for fare evasion with RavKav card inspection readers and visual inspection of the one-trip tickets. The one fare receipt from a bus cash fare is also good for one ride on light rail within a 90 minute period, and it of course must also be validated when boarding the train. The two-car trains (no single car revenue moves have ever been seen) have a total of eight large double doors and four single doors (ends) on each train. As a senior citizen, my monthly works out to about $29/month, pretty terrific for unlimited city and close suburb transportation. When I use the Arab 75 bus to get downtown in a hurry, connecting to Light Rail at Damascus Gate, each ride costs about 80 cents. The Arab sector buses are all high-floor, configured so they can also be used in tourist sight-seeing service, mostly Mercedes, and very comfortable, not really transit buses. Loading can be slow on them. No transfers, one Arab bus to another. A single Egged bus ticket does allow bus to light rail and then anoher bus. Indeed.within a 90-minute period you can ride as many buses as you want on one single-trip ticket, but only one ride on light rail..
RavKav means multiroute.
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