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Pass Riders to Test Fare System

Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

By Charles Laszewski, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Oct. 6--After two years of problems and delays, Metro Transit officials will cautiously roll out over the next six months the new fare system called Go-To smart cards.

Starting Oct. 31, customers of the Metro Pass program will test the system. Then Metro Transit will seek volunteers later this fall to try the system before it becomes available to the general public early next year.

Hundreds of Metro Pass riders already have begun using the smart cards on their own, which has alleviated fears about the troubled system, said Metro Transit spokesman Bob Gibbons.

"Before, it was grit-your-teeth optimism," Metro Transit General Manager Brian Lamb said. "Now, the Metro staff believes it's actually happening."

The new system, at a budgeted $16.5 million, was designed to be more convenient for passengers, allow for quicker boarding and provide Metro Transit with more detailed information about who is using which routes. Eventually, riders will pay a $5 fee for a card, put increments of money onto it and then fares will be automatically deducted when they tap the cards onto a football-shaped device at the front of the bus.

However, nearly everything has gone wrong with the system installed by Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. of San Diego. The reader hasn't worked and emitted an annoying beeping sound. The cards, which contain small antennas, were cracking and failing. The central computer that coordinates monetary transactions didn't work properly.

As a result, the company missed numerous deadlines, including the original August 2003 due date. Cubic has worked hard to right the system, Lamb said.

A new company is producing the cards, and they are the same type used by the U.S. Defense Department, he added. All the defective readers were replaced, and the system is down to just four or five failures a week from about 100, which Lamb said is very good given the hundreds of units on Metro Transit and regional buses serving some of the suburbs.

Metro Pass riders were the perfect test market, because if something goes wrong, they have already paid, and neither the agency nor the passenger is out any money, Lamb said. Metro Pass riders and their employers pay for bus and light-rail fares for an entire year. So when they test the system, it will be to show the readers are recognizing the cards.

Currently, 118 businesses, including Ecolab, Comcast and Lawson Software, and both major cities and counties participate in the Metro Pass program, Gibbons said. About 18,000 employees take advantage of the program and took 3.7 million rides so far this year, Gibbons said.

A few weeks after the Metro Pass people start using the system, the agency will recruit several hundred volunteers to test the stored-value aspect of the Go-To cards, Gibbons said. Metro Transit will ask people who come into their transit stores and will send employees out to metro-area light-rail platforms and busy bus stops to recruit. Volunteers will receive the cards for free and then will be asked to put their own money into their card account.

If all goes well in the tests, the entire enterprise should be available to the public some time in the first three months of 2006, Lamb said.

Recent tests have been positive.

"In May, we could see things were going from beginning to end," Lamb said. "But it was a fragile system, and we had to harden it so it could handle the rigors of daily use."

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ECL, CMCSK, LWSN,

Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)

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