The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) and its fare collection systems integrator, Cubic Transportation Systems Inc., allowed attendees of this week’s APTA Fare Collection Workshop in Los Angeles to test the agency’s new Transit Access Pass (TAP), which uses a new American National Standards Institute “limited use” version of a smart fare card. The attendees and select LACMTA employees were issued a free limited use paper card that they will be able to use for five days at any LACMTA rail station or on all of its 2,600 buses. Cubic has installed more than 6,000 smart card-enabled devices in all, including fareboxes, ticket vending machines, merchant and operator point-of-sales terminals, rail validators and handheld devices. Now that Cubic has completed the installation of LACMTA’s field equipment they have launched the second phase of the project, which is to complete the Regional Central Data Collection System. The system will be used to generate reports; manage the Autoload function and hotlist files; perform credit/debit card transaction processing; and distribute TAP card information to the TAP services providers. With the intentions of creating a seamless system for the entire region, 11 other independent transit operators across Los Angeles County will also join the universal fare system over the next few months.