It’s been almost a year since our last open call for questions relating to TAP, and since then a few significant milestones have been reached.
- The most frequently asked question last year was, “Why isn’t there a cash purse available?” As regular readers know, cash purse – officially referred to as stored value – is now available and value can be added at all Metro ticket vending machines as well as online at taptogo.net.
- Another big question from last year, “What’s the easiest way to get a day pass on a TAP card?” now has a better answer. TAP cards are now available for direct purchase at 22 ticket vending machines across the Metro system. Simply indicate you’d like to purchase a TAP card, choose an amount of value to add or a pass type, swipe your credit card or insert cash and voilà, a shiny new TAP card is spit out of the machine.
With these achievements have come a new set of questions that have popped up in various comment threads and on Twitter. We’d like to use this post to gather your questions so that we can present them to TAP staff and get a new set of answers.
With that in mind, leave your question as a comment to this post or, if you’re old school, send you question to sourcemetro@gmail.com.
How can we load stored value from commuter program transit vouchers?
Does the TAP system handle the fare for seniors correctly — charging 55 cents per ride at peak times and 25 cents at all other times?
@Justin @Jakub
Tell me about it! :rollseyes:
My Starbucks Card is easier to reload than TAP shows what a poor job this agency is doing with regards to IT infrastructure. And I’m paying taxes for this?
The IT guys at Metro should be replaced with guys handling Starbucks’ IT systems. Sheesh.
when l buy my monthly pass, why can’t it be used RIGHT AWAY when the date isn’t the 1st???!!!!. sometimes l don’t need to use the bus for weeks and then l will need it for a whole month. If l need to use on the 15 or else of the month why can l buy it ON THAT DATE AND use it until the 15th of next month and so on? it’s a month. why do l have to lose my fees because l don’t need to use them? why the monthly pass has to start on the 1st of the month and end at the end of the same month? it’s VERY frustating!!!!!!!and it’s not always easy to find a near by store that sell the monthly pass since the one near buy stopped to sell them. l have to take 2 buses and it’s not very convenient. Hope the monthly fees can be buy and use from the date of purchase to the same date on the next month….
Hi Alicia, while that’s not a TAP issue – it’s more of a fare policy issues, it’s something that Metro is aware of. In fact, Metro CEO Art Leahy recently told staff to research that issue. Click here for a clip of Art Leahy talking about the issue at the Transit Coalition Meeting last month.
Fred Camino
Contributor, The Source
Question: Why can’t Metro install ticket vending machines on the Metro Silver Line Stations? Many passengers are complaining the lack of TVM’s.
When will there be paper TAP cards to that you can finally lock the turnstiles?
When will LA Metro and Cubic recognize that a sizeable portion of LA Metro customers do not use English as their primary language and offer a TAP webpage in Spanish?
Here is a question I submitted to the Regional TAP Service Center followed by their reply:
I do a significant amount of purchasing via the internet for my company. Virtually every company that I purchase from has some type of account information retention associated with billing or payment. Some even have automatic billing. Unfortunately TAP retains nothing. Each time I renew I have to complete an order form with the same information each month. Is this process ever going to be updated to either allow automatic payments or retention of billing information?
(Reply from TAP): At this time the Regional TAP Service Center does not have a reoccurring billing statement. And does not plan to have in the near future.
My comment: It’s time for TAP to catch up with technology and improve customer service.
When will I be able to use my TAP card – not only for a day pass – but for a single ride, if that’s all I am travelling that day?
When I visited New York and obtained a Metro Card there, the turnstile charged me for one ride. Then if I took more rides that day, it charged for them, until the amount reached the All Day Pass amount, and then it stopped charging. Doesn’t that make sense? It was so user friendly! Why can’t we have that in LA?