All-door boarding allows customers to board a bus at any door with their TAP cards and allows for faster boarding, shorter stops and increased reliability. The program is expanding to include Metro Rapid 720 starting Sunday, Oct. 14.
How does all-door boarding work?
- Buy and load a TAP card.
- Enter through any door.
- Tap your card at the validator inside the bus.
Look for these decals on buses in order to board at any door:
If you’re paying with cash, you’ll need to board at the front of the bus to purchase and load a TAP card. A valid TAP card is required to ride on all-door boarding lines. Make the ride smoother by having a TAP card ready. When you use a TAP card, you get a free 2-hour transfer to any Metro bus or rail line traveling in the same direction to help you complete your trip.
TAP cards can be purchased and reloaded:
- At the front of the bus
- Online at taptogo.net
- By calling 866.TAPTOGO
- At over 400 TAP vendor locations
- At TAP vending machines, located at Metro Rail, Metro Silver Line and Metro Orange Line stations
Categories: Transportation News
Watching the bewilderment on first time users’ faces trying to figure out the TAP vending machines is disheartening as a supporter of public transit. The machines are about as user-unfriendly as anyone could design and now we are going to complicate occasional and first-time riders’ attempts to ride the system by not accepting cash. We’re supposed to be welcoming potential new riders, not making their lives more difficult. All-door boarding has its pros and cons but not accepting cash seems unnecessary and confusing. We also have the problem here in LA that fare enforcement is going to be non-existent because we don’t want to offend anyone. Mr. Washington has clearly shown that he does not support enforcement of rules on the trains nor the people who enforce them. What is the plan to make sure people pay?
They should look how many people on these lines do not have TAP cards. Until Metro can find a way to get all the people TAP cards and a means to load them [& I mean ways other than on the bus] there will be much grief with all the riders without TAP cards.
And it is mostly poorer folk that are in this situation. These are the ones paying with all coins. And this is true on the Municipal Lines I have ridden in the past few months [Foothill, BigBlueBus, Culver City, Long Beach, Norwalk].
This is pretty interesting…. Especially for those urbanites who been living in the DTLA and wilshire area or the central core….
All entrance door payment automation sounds great! I wonder if people would object to facial and Iris recognition technology that would compliment the cameras already on the busses for putting an end to repeat free ride offenders? FastTrak already uses something similar.
This should be expanded to ALL Rapid lines – the Metro Board needs to identify the cost to put the readers on all red buses. Otherwise this will just gin up confusion. Also, the people paying cash need to be given a receipt, even something a simple as one of the old zone checks with the date and last two digits of the bus number punched. I know we are moving towards paperless but as the previous commenter said, there are still quite a few people paying their $2.50 in cash on the Silver Line (or tapping a monthly pass and putting in 75 cents after the fact) and they would get ticketed, of course if proof of payment was actually enforced.
That’s the thing I’m most confused by. Every Red Rapid bus *DOES* have the TAP readers on all door. But, every morning, Metro staff has to choose which buses will go on the pilot lines and which won’t, and then spend time zip tying a piece of cardboard to prevent people from using them. Which is just a waste of resources, and confusing for riders. The readers are on the buses, and operational — so, the capital work is done. Now, Metro can save money not having to zip tie readers every morning.
Speaking as a rider: this slow roll-out is really, really confusing that only some Rapid line have All Door Boarding.
The other day, I tried to use the back door on a 704 — and the driver assumed I was sneaking on — so they slammed the door shut, leaving my partner and child outside the bus. This meant they had to run to the front door to get on before the bus drove away with my family split up.
Then, more recently, I tried again on the 733 and the back door reader recognized my tap card, even though it isn’t officially part of the pilot program.
Can The Source explain why, since the technology is loaded and operational on all Rapid buses, All Door Boarding can’t just be operationalized on all Rapid lines? …Or, better yet, just make all Rapids All Door Boarding?
Or is there a staff member I can speak with about this topic?
Hi,
Per staff, at this time all-door boarding is exclusively on Lines 720, 754, and Silver Line. There are no plans to expand to other lines yet, although with existing all-door boarding lines serving as examples, Metro will consider expanding the policy to more bus lines.
Thank you,
Anna Chen
Writer, The Source
[…] All Door Boarding Starts On Wilshire Rapid October 14 (TheSource) […]
This is yet another example of the policymakers not actually riding the buses. What I see in the Silver Line? Some passengers continue to pay cash and not using TAP, and the operator let them board as usual, which is understandable because (1) it is not a fare evasion (they did pay), (2) you cannot expect the operator, who only has one pair of eyes, to be overloaded with multiple tasks when he/she needs to drive the bus safely and stay on schedule.
Nope! I think that this is an EXTREMELY Bad Idea for the 720. Maybe the 501, but the 720? No…no…no…
I can think of very few ideas that are anywhere near this bad!
Have you ever ridden one of these buses? It can take a long time to get people on the bus. This can reduce that time by half per the pilot program Metro did on the 720 years ago. San Francisco does this on ALL buses (which Metro SHOULD do but for some reason won’t…), and it’s extremely effective.
@Don Young Huh??? 720 is the most important line in LA and eventhe region….
Care to break those reasons down, if it’s okay to ask??
My only question is, what other lines are we looking at going forward?? Just stopping at the 720 seems kind of odd, especially where Rapid route that have Artics can easily benefit from this.
Hi Dave,
At this time there are no plans to expand all-door boarding to other lines, although with existing all-door boarding lines as examples, Metro will consider expanding the policy.
Thank you,
Anna Chen
Writer, The Source
@Dave Huh??? 720 is one of the most if not most important line…
What are you talking about?? Where did I mention that the 720 should not receive all door boarding?? I asked why stop there, to which I got a hopeful response to.
Do the wiz kids understand this will lead to further complications when assigning buses for the roll out each morning and each after-noon. It will create the same restraints that are experienced by Division 8 with their Orange Line buses except on a larger scale including more than one Division. And if one of the readers is defective will the bus be held in the yard?
A great idea (speaking from SF) but I’m curious why LA has to roll this out a line at a time? What’s the timing (from implementing on one line to the next)?
Hi,
At this time there are no plans to implement on other lines.
Anna Chen
Writer, The Source
This should be interesting. I am hoping Metro does not use this as an excuse to take more 720s off of Wilshire since “frequency should increase with faster boarding.” What I also find interesting is that we installed turn styles throughout a good portion of our train system, and now our rapid buses will be on the honor system?
How the heck is this going to be enforced if we cant keep people from playing music out loud?