Tag Archives: fares

Metrolink posts details on TAP-enabled tickets for its customers

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Metrolink_Ticket_Stock_2013

As has been discussed previously on The Source, Metro is preparing to begin latching gates at Red and Purple Line subway stations beginning this summer, with gates at other Metro Rail stations to be latched subsequently. All Metro riders will need to ‘tap’ their TAP cards to get through the gates.

That, of course, is an issue for Metrolink passengers who get free transfers to Metro as part of their fares — Metrolink uses paper tickets, not the plastic “TAP” cards that have become the norm on Metro. In order for Metrolink passengers to get through latched gates, Metrolink and Metro have worked together to develop paper TAP cards for Metrolink customers.

The following has been posted to Metrolink’s website and explains the transition from the current ticketing system to TAP-enabled paper tickets. Bottom line: The TAP-enabled Metrolink tickets for destinations in Los Angeles County (the area served by Metro) will be available through Metrolink ticket machines and for those purchasing Metrolink monthly passes. Metrolink customers will have to ‘tap’ those tickets when using Metro Rail and will continue to show their tickets to bus operators on Metro bus lines.

Many more details below from Metrolink:

Metrolink to provide TAP-enabled tickets

Metrolink and Metro have worked collaboratively to create a Metrolink ticket that is compatible with the Metro TAP system. TAP-enabled tickets will be dispensed from Metrolink Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) to allow passage through Metro’s turnstiles leading to Metro rails lines and stations.

All Metrolink tickets with Los Angeles County destinations will be TAP-compatible, and all riders will be required to physically tap their tickets at the turnstiles and validators when transferring to a Metro Rail line. When boarding a bus, the current policy of simply showing the bus operator your Metrolink ticket will still be in effect. Tapping is not required on buses.

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Transportation headlines, Friday, May 10

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

CicLAvia: iconic Wilshire Boulevard (CicLAvia) 

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I predict big crowds for this one — go early for better cycling! The June 23 event will be easily accessed from Metro’s Red and Purple Line subway.

Lower bus fares? One transit agency is considering it (GOOD)

AC Transit is studying a possible 10 cent reduction from $2.10 to $2, a more common fare among large transit agencies; AC Transit runs bus service in Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the Bay Area.

The article also has this excerpt:

The agency will also look into other cost-saving alternatives, like getting rid of paper transfers in favor of day passes. AC Transit says abuses of paper transfers, like re-using or selling them, are a source of lost revenue. Other proposals include increasing the automated transit pass Clipper Card network and reducing the cost of a monthly pass.

That line of reasoning contributed to Metro getting rid of transfers and instead going with day passes. Not mentioned here is that making those who transfer pay more is extremely unpopular among riders — and perhaps impacts ridership.

Transit commuters are stinking low-lifes, Subaru tells commuters (Streetsblog) 

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As the Streetsblog post explains, the above ad ran in a Canadian newspaper and conveniently fails to mention the joy of sitting in traffic, smog, climate change, etc. I own a 2007 Subaru and it’s a great car, but the idiots who came up with this ad overlooked another reality: some customers use their 2007 Subarus to drive to transit stops.

Gate latching tests to continue at some Metro Rail stations

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As many Source readers are keenly aware, Metro is preparing to latch the gates at Red and Purple Line stations this summer.
In the meantime, you may encounter testing of latched gates at some station or station entrances over the next few weeks. These tests have already been underway and have gone well. There’s nothing extra you need to do — just ‘tap’ your TAP card to pass through the turnstiles — just as you’re already doing! Metro staff will be on hand to help Metrolink ticket holders and others without TAP cards pass through the turnstiles.
As for Metrolink riders, there will be new TAP-enabled Metrolink tickets available before the gates in the subway are latched. In plain English, don’t worry Metrolink riders. You’re not going to be latched out!

Metrolink-to-Metro TAP test goes well

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I happened upon the testing during the afternoon rush hour on Wednesday and everything appeared to go smoothly. With Metro preparing to latch gates at Red and Purple Line stations this summer, Metro and Metrolink are testing paper TAP-enabled tickets that will allow Metrolink passengers to get through the gates.

From Metro’s TAP staff:

On Wednesday, March 6, 2013, Metro and Metrolink collaborated on a successful test-latching of Metro’s fare gates in Union Station.

At approximately 9:00 a.m., two of the largest groups of Metrolink riders successfully transferred to Metro through latched gate arrays at the Alameda entrance to the station. For the first time ever, Metrolink customers were tapped through the gates by Metrolink staff using Metrolink TAP tickets. The successful testing continued through 5:30 p.m.

In addition, the new gate help phone installed near the gate array was tested. The gate help phones are designed to be accessible to those who may have trouble with their TAP cards, including customers with physical disabilities. Customers do not have to dial a number or push a button for assistance. An operator automatically responds when the customer comes into close proximity to the phone and can assist him or her by remotely opening the ADA accessible gate.

Standard operating procedures went smoothly and testing is expected to continue in future weeks. Metro and Metrolink are pleased that our collaboration has been successful so far and expect gate latching of Red and Purple Line stations to begin in June.

Reminder: why Election Day in Los Angeles matters if you care about transportation

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Click above to find your polling place if you live in the city of Los Angeles.

Click above to find your polling place if you live in the city of Los Angeles.

As you may have heard, there’s a primary election Tuesday in Los Angeles to elect the next mayor of the second-largest city in the nation — a city with about 3.8 million inhabitants and some well-known transportation challenges.

So even if you get all scratchy and/or break out in hives during campaign season, I’m here to kindly remind you to vote because there’s a lot at stake. Strike that. There’s tons at stake. Look up your polling place here.

Here’s why. Metro is a county agency and is overseen by a 13 member Board of Directors who serve as the deciders on most significant issues. The Mayor of Los Angeles gets a seat on that board and gets to fill three other seats with his appointees.

So let’s do some math! A majority of the Metro Board — i.e. seven votes — is required to approve most items. Four of those seven votes are controlled by the Los Angeles mayor. That means that the mayor controls more than half the votes needed to approve items that have impacts (hopefully always very positive!) across Los Angeles County.

Here are some items that are likely to confront the Metro Board in the next four or so years, meaning they’re items likely to confront the lucky soul (if luck is the right word) who becomes the next mayor of the City of Angels and/or Parking Lots:

•Although there’s nothing currently on the table, there will likely be a discussion in the next four years about Metro’s fare structure — all large transit agencies have to confront the fare issue at regular intervals. If you’re one of the readers who has left countless comments on this blog calling for distance-based fares, then this might interest you.

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Focus group says that these redesigned screens on Metro ticket machines are a big step in right direction; what do you think?

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What do you think? Are we on the right track with these new screen designs?

A focus group on Tuesday — the third focus group so far — indicated that ticket vending machine redesigns by Metro’s Creative Services Staff are headed in the right direction.

All of the participants were impressed with the new designs and provided helpful feedback to further refine the screens. They assured Metro that the new screens were a vast improvement over the existing screens and were “very clear and self-explanatory.”  Another participant noted, “I don’t have to concentrate and look for the options. They are very clearly organized.”

One new addition is a more prominent selection screen with 10 different languages, which will make purchases easier for limited-English customers and tourists from abroad. Other improvements include more understandable terminology and less jargon, simpler screens with fewer options and more intuitive selections and more explanations of options — which hopefully will mean less pushing of the ‘help’ button for customers.

The new screens will help all riders purchase and reload TAP cards more quickly and easily, a big help to both rail and bus riders. Bus riders are now using TAP cards more than ever before. Preliminary results from the most recent bus survey conducted by Metro Research show that about seven in 10 bus riders are now using TAP cards to pay for their fares. This is up from about five in 10 in the previous quarter.

What do you think? If you’re leaving a comment, please be as specific as possible about what you like or don’t like or any suggestions that you may have.

Metro Day Pass = $5. Gallon of gas in downtown L.A. = $5.11 for regular

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BusGAs

El Pasajero Editor Jose Ubaldo took the above photo this morning on Alameda Street near Union Station. It’s no secret gas prices have been on the rise lately and as of Monday averaged $4.04 for a gallon of regular in California. As for the price above — that’s Death Valley prices, people!

As for the day pass, it’s price remains the same and doesn’t rise according to the whims and whatevers of major global corporations. From metro.net:

On buses

Load a Day Pass on your TAP card for just $5. As a convenience for those who don’t already have a card, regular TAP cards will be available for purchase with a Day Pass for a total of $6. Like all TAP cards, they can reloaded again and again with any TAP product, including the $5 Day Pass.

At stations and pass outlets

You can load a $5 Day Pass onto your TAP card at Metro Customer Centers, retail TAP vendors and ticket vending machines. If you don’t already have a card, you can purchase one with your pass at these locations for an additional $2.

In addition, a weekly Metro pass is $20 and a monthly pass $75. A monthly EZ Pass that allows for travel on Metro many other buses in Los Angeles County is $84. More info on fares here.

Transportation headlines, Tuesday, Jan. 15

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

Fares increase in Chicago (Chicago Tribune)

Excerpt: “A CTA 30-day pass will cost $100, up from $86, and a seven-day pass will increase to $28 from $23. Three-day passes will cost $20, up from $14, and one-day passes will increase to $10 from $5.75.” The base fare remains $2.25.

By comparison, the Metro base fare is $1.50, a 30-day pass is $75, a seven-day pass is $20 and a day pass is $5. Those are the regular fares; there are deeply discounted passes for students, the disabled, Medicare recipients and senior citizens.

BART struggling to meet surging demand (San Francisco Chronicle) 

The heavy rail system in the San Francisco Bay area is serving about 390,000 average weekday riders and ridership is expected to keep rising after some recent improvements. As a result, many passengers have to stand on trains for longer amounts of time and the agency’s infrastructure at times is having a difficult time handling the load. Officials are mulling several improvements — including a signal upgrade that would allow more trains to run through tunnels under San Francisco Bay. BART is also in dire need of new rail cars.

Another TOD planned for Gold Line in Pasadena (Curbed LA)

A developer just purchased a plot of land adjacent to the Sierra Madre station in eastern Pasadena and is planning a 212-unit apartment complex — next to the existing Stuart Apartments. Pasadena, to its credit, has pushed for more housing near rail stations and hundreds of units have been built near the Del Mar and Lake stations, in particular.

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The Apple Store at Grand Central Terminal in New York. Photo by Brigham Yen.

Using NYC’s Grand Central Terminal as a model for Los Angeles Union Station (DTLA Rising)

Blogger Brigham Yen just returned from a visit to the Big Apple and thinks that Grand Central Station should inspire the Union Station Master Plan. Brigham believes that Union Station needs to serve as a destination — not just a transfer point — and he believes that will happen when many more stores are added to the Union Station complex. GCT is home to 68 businesses, including an Apple store. As many of you know, a master plan is being developed for Union Station — more info here.

Transportation headlines, Friday, Nov. 2

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

Transit tax measure fuels debate over price of fares (L.A. Times)

If Measure J is approved and accelerates transit projects, will fare hikes need to be accelerated to pay for increased operating costs? Critics of J and Metro have contrasting views.

Measure J aims to start public transit's engines (KPCC AirTalk)

Host Larry Mantle moderates a conversation about J with Supervisor and Metro Board Member Zev Yaroslavsky and the Bus Rider Union lead organizer Sunyoung Yang.

The New York Subway's recovery map -- what's operating and what isn't.

A scarcity of gas, but some transit gains (New York Times)

Excerpt:

Four days after Hurricane Sandy, the effort to secure enough gas for the region moved to the forefront of recovery work. The problems affected even New York City, where the Taxi Commission warned that the suddenly indispensable fleet of yellow cabs would thin significantly Friday because of the fuel shortage. City officials said they reached an agreement with a major supplier Thursday night that would ensure that emergency operations — fire, police, sanitation and work by the parks department to clean up downed trees — would continue uninterrupted.In Union, N.J., the problem was starkly highlighted on Thursday when lines of cars waiting for gas at a Sunoco ran in three directions: a mile-long line up the Garden State Parkway, a half-mile line along Vauxhall Road, and another, including a fleet of mail trucks that needed to refuel before resuming their rounds, snaking through a back entrance. The scene was being replayed across the state as drivers waited in lines that ran hundreds of vehicles deep, requiring state troopers and local police officers to protect against exploding tempers.“I’ve been pumping gas for 36 hours; I pumped 17,000 gallons,” said Abhishek Soni, the owner of an Exxon in Montclair, where disputes in the line Wednesday night had become so heated that Mr. Soni called the police and turned off the pumps for 45 minutes to restore calm. “My nose, my mouth is bleeding from the fumes. The fighting just makes it worse.”

As the map above shows, limited transit service is returning to New York but it's still a shadow of its usual self. All three commuter railroads that serve the area — the Long Island Railroad, Metro North and New Jersey Transit — are far from normal service levels.

Commutes complicated by storm (New York Times)

Click above to see this terrific and sobering photo gallery. The image of the cars pointed every which way at the gas station is priceless. Also, the images are a good reminder of the central role of transit and mobility in the lives of many city dwellers — something I think too many of our national elected officials forget to talk about.

At Strathmore and Westwood, it's UCLA bike box (Streetsblog Los Angeles)

Check out the photo with the article. The box is designed to help reduce right-turn conflicts between vehicles and bikes by putting the bikes out front at intersections.

A real Google Wallet card? (The Verge)

This is just rumor based on a supposed leak and could be flat out wrong, but Google may be working on a version of Google Wallet that allows you to program one credit card to serve as all your cards. One of the cards shown is something familiar to some of you.

 

TAP improvements proposed by Metro staff

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First, some good news: A number of changes are in the works for Metro ticket machines.

Among them: allowing customers to purchase stored value amounts of $3 (for those taking round-trips), new messaging on the machines to help customers make their first purchase, as well as some minor changes in the way fares are described in order to make it easier to understand.

In addition, several other notable changes are proposed by Metro staff as part of a contract modification with Cubic, the vendor that provides TAP equipment (The taptogo.net website is overseen by another vendor, Xerox, and there are talks scheduled about updating that). Many of these changes involve issues with TAP raised by both Source readers and the media.

Among the improvements proposed in the Metro staff report:

• Simplify TVM screens to make them more user-friendly.

• Update and clarify the existing “Help” options and directions.

• Incorporate up to six languages in addition to the existing English and Spanish options currently provided.

• Enable the purchase of multiple rides on a single TAP card and/or the purchase of multiple TAP cards in a single cash/credit card transaction for families and groups. (Note to readers: TAP cards can hold up to eight single rides. The issue here is that the machines currently require customers to buy a single ride and then start over with a new transaction in order to buy a second single ride — i.e. the equivalent of a round-trip purchase for those using one bus or train to get somewhere and back).

• Install an additional TVM [ticket vending machine] next to the Metro Customer Center in the East Portal at Union Station to help expedite customer purchases and provide service when the center is closed, as well as an additional TVM at the Culver City station.

Another proposal: relocate some of the standing TAP validators in rail stations to more convenient places to help traffic flow better through the stations.

Here’s the staff report:

TAP contract modification