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BART balks at universal fare card
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Date Posted: 6/09/03 12:25:46pm
In reply to:
Article dated July 24th U.S. time.
's message, "Flemer said she hopes to resolve the disputes in two to four weeks and to issue the work order by the end of August." on 1/09/03 9:39:12pm
ERGSanfrancisco2 delayed for at least 1 month September 3rd
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http://www.theargusonline.com/Stories/0,1413,83~1971~1605468,00.html
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BART balks at universal fare card
Board rejects TransLink proposal, cites 6-month delay before customers could add value to plastic fare cards
By Sean Holstege, STAFF WRITER
The BART Board of Directors called a decade-old experiment to knit together the region's tran-sit systems with a universal fare card a "fiasco" and refused to join full throttle.
The board has rejected a proposal to sign, at least for a month, legal agreements with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which is developing the universal card, known as TransLink. The action came one day after a judge tossed out a lawsuit by BART's fare machine vendor Cubic Transportation Services, which had sued MTC to block rolling out TransLink.
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BART has participated in the successful early testing of the system, along with AC Transit, SamTrans, MUNI, Santa Clara VTA and Golden Gate Transit.
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But after months of negotiations over how to roll out the full TransLink system in the next two years, BART officials convinced MTC to pay most of the cost of rewiring BART's fare machines. BART also insisted that the single fare card have two electronic accounts -- one for TransLink bucks and one for BART bucks. That would mean some passengers would have to add value twice to the same card.
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Partner transit agencies had no such needs and some worry that it may defeat the purpose of having a single card. MTC has already spent $25 million on the concept, which was hatched 20 years ago and developed in the early 1990s to let Bay Area transit riders go anywhere with one pass. It would automatically deduct fares, just like FasTrak charges tolls system on the region's bridges.
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But despite the concessions, BART's nine-member board balked on Thursday.
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"This program is in trouble," said BART Director Dan Richard. "We have some concerns about TransLink and whether it will even happen."
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He said TransLink is "vastly over budget" and questioned whether the Australian vendor ERG Transit Systems Inc. can deliver, now that its technology development part-ner, Motorola, has pulled out.
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MTC officials dismiss the concern, pointing out that ERG has successfully run "smart" transit fare systems in Hong Kong and Washington, D.C.
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They say BART's changes would add millions more than the $79 million budget to complete the system in the next two years.
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But BART Director James Fang was even more critical.
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"This TransLink program has been a fiasco. We shouldn't even get involved in this unless we can protect our riders," he said.
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His colleagues' main objection revolves around an expected six-month gap between when the public could first use the plastic fare cards and when BART fare machines could be retrofit to allow people to add value to those cards with cash. MTC asked BART to study the problem.
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"A study is just a stall to torture customers," Director Tom Radulovich said. "If somebody shows up to one of our stations with a $10 bill and can't add value, people are going to have our hides."
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BART began installing a new generation of Cubic fare machines without waiting for TransLink because the original machines were breaking regularly. The work should be done at the end of the year.
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Away from BART, few understand the logjam.
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"I don't get it, considering how much BART shook down MTC," AC Transit Director Chris Peeples said, blaming "BART's ego" and its "vision of itself as separate and better than everyone else."
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BART Deputy General Manager Dorothy Dugger said BART is the only system that doesn't have a discount fare built into the TransLink accounting.
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MTC officials described the process as having a gun to their head. BART threatened to walk away from the experiment if MTC didn't concede to its demands. As a result, MTC pledged to divert $10 million from future bridge tolls, assuming Bay Area voters approve a permanent $1 in-crease toward retrofitting BART's new fare machines.
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BART will contribute $2.6 million. Dugger said BART was the only transit operator to pay anything for TransLink.
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Contact Sean Holstege at sholstege@angnewspapers.com .
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