Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your
contribution is not tax-deductible.)
PayPal Acct: 
Feedback: 
Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):
| Sunday, May 17, 03:03:52am | [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7, 8, 9, 10 ] |
| Subject: Bus, commuter rail and subway systems across Maryland, Virginia and the District have agreed to install fareboxes that will accept the SmarTrip card | |
|
Author: Thursday, June 5, 2003; Page B01Washington Post |
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: Monday, June 09, 08:33:57am http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14862-2003Jun4.html Integrated Use Of SmarTrip Delayed a Year By Lyndsey Layton Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, June 5, 2003; Page B01 A groundbreaking system that would allow passengers to use a single SmarTrip card to board Metrorail, Metrobus and 16 other transit systems from Fredericksburg to Ocean City has run into technical trouble, delaying its debut by more than a year. Officials at Metro, the lead agency in the $110 million regional project, said this week that the SmarTrip fareboxes won't be installed on all 1,500 Metrobuses until late this year or early 2004. Original plans called for installation to begin in summer 2002. Metro officials said the roadblocks stem from software problems. "This is really a first -- we're pushing the state of the art," said Murray Bond, Metro's director of SmarTrip operations. "Part of the reason why the software development is so laborious is because it's so complex." Bus, commuter rail and subway systems across Maryland, Virginia and the District have agreed to install fareboxes that will accept the SmarTrip card -- the broadest application of a smart card for any regional transportation, according to SmarTrip's manufacturer, Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. The plan would allow a particularly energetic passenger, for example, to use a SmarTrip card to ride the Fairfax Connector to the Virginia Railway Express to the District, switch to the Metro, then board a Montgomery County Ride On bus before taking a MARC train to Baltimore's subway and light rail system, then getting back on the MARC to New Carrollton to board an Annapolis Transit bus. The idea, officials say, is to make public transportation so easy and seamless that more people will want to ride. Metro is paying $24 million for fareboxes for its bus system. SmarTrip is the reusable, rechargeable plastic card that automatically deducts fares or parking fees when waved over sensors at fare gates or parking lot gates at Metro stations. Since its introduction in 1999, the computer chip card has become wildly popular among regular Metro riders. About 340,000 of the SmarTrip cards, which cost $5 each, are in circulation. Installing SmarTrip fareboxes on Metrobuses would speed boarding, would give riders who make 500,000 daily trips on Metrobus the same convenience enjoyed by subway riders and would end one hassle of riding the bus: the need for exact change. The fareboxes would still accept cash but not the magnetic-strip paper Farecard used on the trains. The SmarTrip fareboxes would enable Metro to retrieve valuable information about ridership patterns not captured by the mechanical fareboxes, which have 1980s technology. "We'll be able to track every transaction performed on the bus -- what time riders got on, how many, if they were elderly customers or students using a discount fare, if it was a rail-to-bus transfer," Bond said. "That's very helpful in terms of helping us plan better." Metro began testing the SmarTrip fareboxes in November on 83 buses based in Arlington. The test was to last 90 days, after which the fareboxes would be installed in the rest of the 1,500-bus fleet. But software problems have slowed the schedule, said Tom Rampe, Metro's senior project engineer for technology products "Every time you solve one problem, it reveals another problem that you didn't know about," Rampe said. Since testing began, Metro has identified 100 software problems. Cubic has fixed all but about 20, Rampe said. On occasion, the SmarTrip fareboxes being tested aren't accurately recording the amount of cash received, Rampe said. At other times, the farebox transactions on a particular bus are not transmitted correctly to a central computer at Metro headquarters, he said. Bond said that the problems are not significant but that Metro will not move forward with SmarTrip until they're resolved. Richard Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Cubic Transportation Systems Inc., said the delays had more to do with the fact that the project evolved from installing the fareboxes on Metrobus to 17 transit systems across two states and a city. "There was huge growth in the scope of the contract -- no one has a system like this," Johnson said. © 2003 The Washington Post Company [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| Subject | Author | Date |
| ERG SIGNS CONTRACT FOR MAJOR WASHINGTON DC, MARYLAND & NORTH VIRGINIA | 2003-06-25 (ERG originally announced on 20/1/03) It has now been signed | Wednesday, June 25, 08:14:23am |
| SAN DIEGO, Aug 25, 2003 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Cubic | upgrade the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority | Monday, August 25, 12:49:34pm |
| WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 29, 2003 (PRIMEZONE)The RCSC | International NewslinesSpeciality SmarTrip(r) Regional Customer Service Center Will Allow Passengers One-Card Access to 17 Transit Systems | Tuesday, September 30, 03:02:48am |
| ERG and Northrop Grumman Begin Washington, D.C. Metro Area Transit Fare Collection Project | WASHINGTON, DC -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 09/29/2003 | Tuesday, September 30, 03:04:28am |
| ERG teams for Europe dealSMARTCARD company ERG has teamed up with T-Systems International for upcoming transit fare collection tenders in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. | SEPTEMBER 30, 2003 | Tuesday, September 30, 09:43:22am |
| Washington area set to expand smart-card transit program ERG Group is the lead contractor on the SmarTrip integration project | 10/03/03 Metrobuses in Arlington, Va., have accepted the plastic SmarTrip cards for about a year in a pilot program. | Saturday, October 04, 12:05:50am |
|
||