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Article Last Updated: Saturday, September 27, 20032:42:18 PM PST
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Date Posted: 28/09/03 7:08:42am
In reply to:
Aug 11 2003
's message, "Confirmation of San Francisco at or around the time of the annual report is just Mr Fogarty's style." on 1/09/03 9:33:35pm
Article Last Updated: Saturday, September 27, 2003 - 2:42:18 PM PST
Universal fare card gets OK
One pass would work on all of region's major transit systems
By Douglas Fischer, STAFF WRITER
BART is on board with a universal fare card, having approved the so-called "smart card" to allow Bay Area travelers seamless transfers among the region's major transit agencies.
But the light-green plastic card, resembling a credit card but embedded with a microchip and an antenna, won't get commuters across the Bay for another two years as technological glitches are worked out and equipment is upgraded, ac-cording to BART.
The card, called TransLink, works much like a bank debit card: subtracting fares for various agencies from a prepaid account as a rider hops, say, from AC Transit to BART to Caltrain and back.
The BART Board of Directors had initially objected to Translink over concerns BART customers could not replenish accounts at station ticket machines or that high-value ticket customers would not receive the 6.25 percent discount on fares they now enjoy.
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Thursday's unanimous vote came after the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which will administer the system, and the BART board agreed to include both features on the smart card. BART was the last holdout.
"We've got all the fish on board. Now it's full speed ahead," said MTC executive director Steve Heminger.
The program still faces hurdles. The manufacturer of BART's new fare gates and ticket machines, as well as a competing smart-card technology, has sued the MTC. And all those new machines and fare gates now being installed in BART stations will have to be retrofitted to accept Translink technology.
That should cost $14 million, said BART spokesman Mike Healy. It cannot be done as the machines are being installed, he added, because the various technology issues remain unresolved and the machines need to be installed now.
Contact Douglas Fischer at dfischer@angnewspapers.com .
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