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As funding opportunities and budgets subsequently shrink, many transit agencies are looking for ways to cut corners and operate more efficiently.

One often overlooked remedy that many agencies may not consider is jumping further into the technological revolution, where there are many solutions that

can help make operations run smoother. Take fare collection operations, for example, with outdated systems. Many agencies lose money every day on illegal transfers, fare evasion and the inability to tailor their services to meet demand in key demographics.

From large to small, in a relatively short amount of time, many agencies have seen the benefits of updating their fare collection systems, which have helped increase revenue and virtually eliminated fare evasion, as well as given them the tools to improve service and increase efficiencies.

Addressing inefficiencies

“Changing our fare collection system was a huge leap because it was mainly just a flash pass before,” says Diana Kotler, executive director of the Anaheim  (Calif.) Transit Network (ATN), a seven-year-old system that serves the greater Anaheim Resort Area, including Disneyland.

Receiving zero state or federal funding, about 70 percent of ATN’s revenue comes from farebox recovery, with the other 30 percent coming from assessment fees charged to local businesses. Therefore, it was imperative for the agency to update its system, which it did in 2007.

“We did find that with the validating farebox our cash revenue went up probably twentyfold,” says Kotler. “That’s no exaggeration. We went from $2,000 a month in farebox revenues to $20,000 this last December.”

Kotler adds that ATN followed the same system requirements that the larger Orange County (Calif.) Transportation Authority uses, which would make it compatible with the agency if later down the road a transfer agreement is reached or fare collection moves to a smart card system.  

Either way, the change will help ATN with the expansion of its services expected to take place in 2010 when Metrolink service is expected to increase to half-hour frequencies, enabling ATN to keep its fare structure in line with the commuter rail service. 

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) also improved its fare collection on its buses in 2004 and will begin installing vending machines in September 2009, with the intent of having the machines on the platforms of every rail station in its system.

“The new machines will allow us to have much more flexibility,” says Dwight Mymbs, senior manager, revenue systems, for DART. “Right now, our customers cannot buy a monthly pass or seven-day pass at the rail station, but in the future they will have the capability to do both.”

One major inefficiency DART addressed by updating its fare collection system was the elimination of paper waste. Before moving to a magnetic card system, Mymbs explains that the agency would have to purchase day passes for every day of the year.

“You can imagine trying to come up with a calculation to make sure that you have enough day passes to cover your fleet for a whole year or two years,” he says. “It was a lot of paper, and at the end of the day you’d have day passes left over because you didn’t use them all.”

Now, Mymbs says the agency can simply order card stock based on usage, saving the agency plenty in much-needed dollars.

El Paso, Texas-based Sun Metro had approximately six different types of buses on the street, and almost as many types of fare collection systems, before equipping new buses ordered in 2007 with GFI Genfare’s Odyssey validating farebox.

“We actually already owned the software, but never upgraded the boxes so that we had only one fare collection system that would work with it,” explains Lynly Leeper, assistant director, development, for Sun Metro.

The problem caused by having multiple fare collection systems was compounded by the counterfeiting of its day passes, which Sun Metro eventually had to quit offering after several attempts to correct the problem.

“We changed the structure and imprinting on the pass at least three times in about twelve months,” Leeper explains. “We couldn’t keep up with how fast they could counterfeit.”

Now with an updated magnetic card system, Sun Metro plans on bringing back the day pass, as well a seven-day pass, in addition to its monthly pass, which was instituted to help increase monthly revenues and discourage transfers — another issue made worse by the use of flash passes.

[PAGEBREAK]Data gathering capabilities

Like ATN, Sun Metro also improved its cash revenue after updating its fare collection system. But as Leeper explains, what moving to an electronic system really did was improve the agency’s demographic information gathering.

“Ours was an issue where we weren’t getting good ridership numbers, didn’t have actual counts because of the mixture of systems and just didn’t have good overall reporting, not just of ridership but of classifications of riders,” she says.

The new fare collection system now enables Sun Metro to track ridership by actual count and also track classifications of ridership, which proved to be important when Sun Metro was in the analysis stage of implementing a fare increase.

Leeper explains that the agency wanted to raise the base and student fares, while keeping the cost for seniors the same because of their fixed income. After studying the numbers it received through its fare collection system, the agency was able to make the necessary changes to its fare structure

“To analyze the impact of a fare increase and modeling it you need to know what your classification of riders are, and in the past nobody has been able to do that here,” she says. “By upgrading, we were able to get this information and implement a fare increase directly through the software that was effective immediately.” 

Meanwhile, ATN was also able to enhance its new farebox system with GPS and automatic passenger counting and voice annunciation systems, which have helped increase its drivers’ schedule adherence and make internal auditing simpler. 

Added sense of security

Saving money and increased efficiencies aren’t the only advantages to updating your fare collection system. There is also an added sense of security, as Kim Green, president of GFI Genfare, explains.

“The security features are twofold. First, the farebox helps verify or enforce that each customer is paying the correct fare. Secondly, is the ability of the farebox to count all the cash and validate the bills and the coins, helping to ensure that there are no internal security issues.”

The system keeps track of the money going into the farebox. That information is then transmitted to a backend data system, so when the money goes to the bank,  the agency knows exactly how much they are depositing, eliminating the need to count cash before turning it over. As Green explains, the bank will then notify the transit agency how much money was deposited, which the agency can then verify through its system.

“It’s not 100 percent accurate, but it’s very close,” says Green. “And, in some places we have had reports of it being over 99 percent accurate.”

Implementing programs

Long Beach Transit (LBT) used its updated collection system to forge a partnership with California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), where they provide the U-Pass for university faculty, staff and students, who ride the transit system.

“In the case of the U-pass program, we were able to start a program with state-of-the-art technology where any faculty, staff or student that has a CSULB ID can swipe their card when getting on a bus,” explains Marcelle Epley, marketing manager for LBT. “In that magnetic stripe is encoded information and, when that information is registered by our farebox, we are able to produce reports based on the number of people that are riding.”

Epley adds that being able to track customers helped them realize their actual ridership, which reached 3,000 to 4,000 daily average boardings, compared to LBT’s estimated 1,400 daily average boardings, thus helping the agency plan its future services.

The partnership has been a success to this point, with the university community making good use of the LBT system, which in turn is helping alleviate some of CSULB’s parking concerns.

The updated fare collection system will also enable LBT to provide programs in the future, such as being able to create special event passes for an organization that is in town attending a conference at the Long Beach Convention Center.

“What we will be able to do is offer a customized pass that is available for the dates that the events attendees are in Long Beach,” says Epley. “And, with the system, we’ll be able to program it so that it can be a one-day pass on all buses or a three-day pass that is good for the Passport shuttle system, for example.”

[PAGEBREAK]Regional fare system

In West Virginia, Huntington-based Tri-State Transit Authority (TTA) and Charleston-based Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority partnered to provide a commuter bus route, which makes two trips a day. Because they both have the same fare collection system, the process proved to be simple. “What we did is create a transit friendly pass that both systems could use,” says Paul Davis, GM of the TTA.

The idea of creating a single pass for multiple systems is one that is currently gaining steam in Southern California as well, says GFI’s Green.

“In the Los Angeles area, we are working with Cubic Transportation Systems and the LACMTA (L.A. Metro) on such a regional system. In addition to the MTA with its almost 3,000 buses, there are about 10 municipalities that surround Los Angeles that are now in the process of installing the same kind of Odyssey fareboxes,” he says. “So, eventually L.A. will have a regional smart card-based system called TAP that allows passengers to use a single smart card-based fare payment document throughout the entire region.”

Green adds that even smaller cities that aren’t using smart cards yet can still use their magnetic stripe systems to have a regional card, making it more convenient and economical for the passengers.     

 


The Future of Fare Collection

With smart card systems already being rolled out in large cities, including Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Miami, Chicago and New York, it is clear the short-term future of fare collection has already arrived.

GFI Genfare President Kim Green explains that while it is common for larger transit properties to be early adopters, smart card systems will soon begin to be implemented in both mid-size and small markets as well.

Green adds that outside of the additional flexibility and security that smart cards bring, magnetic cards are still a proven and viable technology that very much has a place in the industry, especially with the current expense to implement smart cards.

But what is on the horizon beyond smart cards?

“There is a lot of experimentation going on around the world, and even to a certain extent here in the states, about the idea of using your cell phone as more than just a communication device and, quite frankly, starting to use it as a payment device,” says Green. “The credit card companies would also love to be able to have some kind of a payment device that would allow people to charge their fare using a credit card.”

GFI is currently working on a pilot program with the Nashville (Tenn.) Metropolitan Transit Authority, which enables riders to use their credit cards to pay for fares. Green adds that with some credit card companies already implementing smart card technology, the big issue with the use of credit cards for fare payment comes down to if they’ll be smart cards or magnetic stripe systems.

Beyond that, Green half-jokingly says that maybe some day fare payment can be handled by taking a thumbprint or a retinal scan, or perhaps by embedding a chip in somebody’s wrist with a personal ID code.

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