http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0227fares0227.html

Light rail seeks out fare plans New ticket device, smart card on list

Sean Holstege The Arizona Republic Feb. 27, 2006 12:00 AM

Confused passengers are to mass transit what clots are to arteries.

They fumble for change or jam their tickets in turnstiles. Lines of frustrated patrons fume as they miss their light-rail trains. They can even delay the trains, throwing a system off schedule.

Given the fallout, Valley Metro Rail is aiming to provide what outside experts predict will be the most convenient fare-collection system in the country. The Valley Metro light-rail system is expected to open a 20-mile starter line connecting Phoenix to East Valley cities in 2008. And it's relying on three approaches:

Allowing passengers to board the light-rail trolleys without passing through a turnstile or showing anyone a ticket, unless a transit officer asks.

Up-to-date ticket devices that will take all kinds of plastic and will cash up to $50 bills.

Smart cards that can be waved in front of a reader and will offer loyalty rewards, such as discounts at retailers.

"All of these things are being done, but not necessarily at the same place," said Thomas Parker, chairman of an American Public Transportation Association committee to set national standards for universal fare cards.

In transit, the name of the game is to get as many people on and off the vehicles as fast as possible. It makes the system run more efficiently, saves money and keeps people from getting so frustrated that they never ride again.

Honor system

It may sound crazy to rely on a partial honor system to collect fares.

But every new system in the past 15 years has done the same thing, and with reason. With turnstiles, it can take up to 90 seconds to load a train at each station. Without them, it shouldn't take more than 20 seconds, and the schedule depends on it.

That's because the light-rail system, and all the traffic intersections along the route, depend on predicting the motion of trains. If trolleys are on time, they trigger a series of green lights along their path. But if they are late, they miss a cycle and a cascade of delays ripples though the line, said Metro's operations chief, Joe Marie.

At the last new light-rail system that Marie opened, in Minneapolis, one passenger in 1,000 skipped payment. He says he wants Phoenix to better that rate, to have the best fare compliance in the country. The industry standard for fare evasion is 3 percent. At a hypothetical $1.50-a-ride fare and an estimated 26,000 passengers a day, that means Metro would lose $1,170 a day if it met the compliance standard.

That may sound like money wasted, but there will also be a fear factor: Metro will hire inspectors to randomly check who has paid the fare. Cheaters get fined.

On Sacramento's 39-mile light-rail system, first-time violators pay a $60 fine. The maximum penalty is $250, but the 20 inspectors can exercise discretion if they think a scofflaw made an honest mistake. They inspect one in five passengers, who pay on the same machines as Phoenix will have.

The honor system comes down to dollars and common sense. Turnstiles add millions to the cost of building stations. Having too many fare inspectors wastes more money than they're trying to recover.

Fare machines

After trains, ticket machines are the most critical machinery in the system because they are the public's first encounter with light rail. Valley Metro doesn't want it to be the last.

"We don't want people to think too much. It will be a simple machine with lots of capabilities," Marie said.

The fare machines will accept coins and bills and debit and credit cards. They will make change for denominations from a $1 coin to a $50 bill.

That may sound like a no-brainer, but in older transit systems it proved to be a bear. For years, passengers in other cities grumbled about having to carry exact change.

Only in recent years have transit machines been able to take plastic. When they did, the first models often presented a bewildering maze of buttons and screens.

Metro's machines will spit out a paper receipt for business travelers as an added service, uncommon across the country.

Last week, Valley Metro's governing board authorized Chief Executive Officer Rick Simonetta to enter a $7.2 million contract with Scheidt & Bachmann USA Inc. to buy 100 fare-vending machines. The contract also covers technical support, software and data collection and came in $3 million under budget. The firm beat out two Spanish competitors.

Metro is buying a proven, off-the-shelf device. Transit operators in Portland, Ore., Sacramento, Boston and New York and engineering consultants all say the machines have performed well. Portland's Tri-Met light-rail system and New York's Long Island Railroad recently extended Scheidt & Bachmann's technical support contracts, a sign of confidence.

In Phoenix, the machines will feature one custom add-on: air-conditioning units. Marie doesn't want customers to burn their hands on the metal boxes in the heat of summer after service starts in late 2008.

Valley Metro's machines can be voice-activated. In English or Spanish, they will instruct people step-by-step through the process of buying a ticket. They can buy a single ticket, transfer, discount pass or add value to a smart card.

Next summer, the agency will enlist the public to "kick the tires" on the machines.

Smart cards

The real prospect of convenience comes from smart cards, which work like ATM cards. Fares are deducted by waving the cards over a reader on the platform or inside each trolley, similar to how office access cards work.

Hong Kong is the holy grail of smart transit cards. There, the Octopus Card allows people to ride the subway, trolleys, buses and ferries on one electronic fare. They can also spend Octopus dollars on parking and airport shuttles and free valets.

Chicago and Washington, D.C., were the first to introduce full-service smart cards, but without outside promotions. New York's subway gives a handful of price breaks to museums for transit riders.

In northern California, smart cards remain in the experimental phase. The Bay Area has spent $30 million and more than a decade trying to unite two dozen transit systems with a single fare card.

Valley Metro has a significant leg up.

For one, the region's bus system contracted with Scheidt & Bachmann in December to buy new fare machines, making buses and light-rail compatible before a single track is laid.

"Integrating legacy systems can present problems. When you're doing it new, you don't have to worry about the interface," said Parker, of the transit group setting standards for fare cards.

Valley Metro's light-rail machines could accommodate a full-blown Octopus card here, with discounts, marketing and promotions galore to build system loyalty. Simonetta agrees it could work.

Metro is already marketing a precursor: a Metro Max card that offers discounts at firms disrupted by the construction.

"You could use the same card to buy a cup of coffee or pay for the dry cleaners. The more uses you offer, the more reasons people will have to keep one of these in their purse or wallet," Simonetta said.

That, plus the other planned conveniences, would put Phoenix at the front of national transit trends, experts said.

"The possibilities are wide-open and that's the exciting part," Simonetta said.

Reach the reporter at sean.

holstege@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8334