by lstone19
I am just back from a week in Washington, DC where I rode Metro every day. When I compare the fare collection system there to Ventra and what the CTA et al. have done, I become increasingly convinced the CTA was sold a bill of goods.
CTA's justification for scrapping the old mag-stripe card / Chicago Card system was that the cards for Chicago Cards (and Plus) were no longer manufactured. And yet WMATA (Washington's "CTA") has essentially the same system from the same manufacturer (Cubic) and their solution was to find a new manufacturer for the cards. And they did. And it works just fine.
And I saw so much else that works better there. In Chicago, cards expire (about a year for mag-strip cards and four years for the Chicago Cards); in Washington, they don't. In Chicago, if your Chicago Card expired with value on it, it was a pain in the butt to get it moved requiring a phone call or a trip to the CTA office. If a mag-stripe card expired, the value was gone. To move value from a Chicago Card to a Ventra requires a visit to the Ventra customer service center or a "balance transfer event". In Washington, you don't need to worry about moving from SmarTrip (their contactless card) to the next version because as I said above, they found a new manufacturer. And if you have leftover value on a paper fare card, it can be transferred to a SmarTrip card at any fare vending machine.
I had a paper fare card leftover from a visit five (yes, FIVE) years ago with a dollar on it. Even if the card was still good (it was), I assumed it worthless to me since they now surcharge paper fare cards $1.00 (so my dollar would just go to the surcharge). Until I noticed that when you go to add value to SmarTrip, in addition to cash or credit/debit cards, the machine also accepts old paper fare cards and adds the value to your SmarTrip card. Wow! What a concept.
Anther thing (and I don't know how Chicago Card Plus or Ventra handles these so not comparing, just pointing out a good feature): I had a 7-day pass on my SmarTrip. On departure day (day 8), the pass was expired so it would be deducting money. Did it just start deducting? No. First tap, it warned that the pass had expired giving me the opportunity to go to a fare machine and buy another pass. Tapped again and it let me in. Back home now, card put away, but knowing the remaining value is there waiting for me to return whenever with no expiration.
Meanwhile, Chicago officials let themselves be convinced they needed a whole new system all because one vendor didm't want to make the old cards anymore. I wonder if they even looked at what other users of Cubic's systems did. I can just imagine the conversations:
Cubic to WMATA: We're not going to make the cards you use for SmarTrip anymore. You probably need a whole new system.
WMATA: OK, we'll see if someone else will make them for us. Yep, someone can. We'll just continue on as is.
Cubic to CTA: We're not going to make the cards you use for Chicago Card anymore. You probably need a whole new system.
CTA: OK, new system it is. How much do you want for a new system? To whom should we make the check payable?
CTA's justification for scrapping the old mag-stripe card / Chicago Card system was that the cards for Chicago Cards (and Plus) were no longer manufactured. And yet WMATA (Washington's "CTA") has essentially the same system from the same manufacturer (Cubic) and their solution was to find a new manufacturer for the cards. And they did. And it works just fine.
And I saw so much else that works better there. In Chicago, cards expire (about a year for mag-strip cards and four years for the Chicago Cards); in Washington, they don't. In Chicago, if your Chicago Card expired with value on it, it was a pain in the butt to get it moved requiring a phone call or a trip to the CTA office. If a mag-stripe card expired, the value was gone. To move value from a Chicago Card to a Ventra requires a visit to the Ventra customer service center or a "balance transfer event". In Washington, you don't need to worry about moving from SmarTrip (their contactless card) to the next version because as I said above, they found a new manufacturer. And if you have leftover value on a paper fare card, it can be transferred to a SmarTrip card at any fare vending machine.
I had a paper fare card leftover from a visit five (yes, FIVE) years ago with a dollar on it. Even if the card was still good (it was), I assumed it worthless to me since they now surcharge paper fare cards $1.00 (so my dollar would just go to the surcharge). Until I noticed that when you go to add value to SmarTrip, in addition to cash or credit/debit cards, the machine also accepts old paper fare cards and adds the value to your SmarTrip card. Wow! What a concept.
Anther thing (and I don't know how Chicago Card Plus or Ventra handles these so not comparing, just pointing out a good feature): I had a 7-day pass on my SmarTrip. On departure day (day 8), the pass was expired so it would be deducting money. Did it just start deducting? No. First tap, it warned that the pass had expired giving me the opportunity to go to a fare machine and buy another pass. Tapped again and it let me in. Back home now, card put away, but knowing the remaining value is there waiting for me to return whenever with no expiration.
Meanwhile, Chicago officials let themselves be convinced they needed a whole new system all because one vendor didm't want to make the old cards anymore. I wonder if they even looked at what other users of Cubic's systems did. I can just imagine the conversations:
Cubic to WMATA: We're not going to make the cards you use for SmarTrip anymore. You probably need a whole new system.
WMATA: OK, we'll see if someone else will make them for us. Yep, someone can. We'll just continue on as is.
Cubic to CTA: We're not going to make the cards you use for Chicago Card anymore. You probably need a whole new system.
CTA: OK, new system it is. How much do you want for a new system? To whom should we make the check payable?
Larry
Reno, NV (yes, I've moved)
ex-N&W Sandusky, Ohio
Reno, NV (yes, I've moved)
ex-N&W Sandusky, Ohio