February 29, 2008
It's Time to Take Translink out Behind the Barn and Shoot it
Good news: Translink will be up and running on Muni in the late fall/early winter of 2007. Or at least, that's what Muni said last year, and surprise! It's still not working. (And before that, it was January of 2007.) Translink is the work of a company called ERG, Ltd (emphasis on the "limited"); and in the decades (decades!) that it's been bandied about, lots of other cities have managed to set up Translinks of their own. No wonder Scott Schroeder, BART's controller-treasurer, wants the MTC to cut its losses and just give up on the project.
The impossible Translink dream has been stumbling around like a rabid possum for so long that it's sometimes hard to remember how disastrous it's been. But for years, it's always been almost ready. Just a few more months. Just one more test. Just a few million more. Can't stop us now. Nearly there. So close. This time, we promise it'll work.
And now, let's refresh our memories with a trip down memory lane with the Chron:
01/15/98: Multitransit card proposed - "The MTC hopes that by 2001, Bay Area residents will be able to use Translink cards on any local transit system, anytime. It will cost about $38 million to set up the program, including the pilot study, and run it for the first five years."
05/22/99: A Smart Transit Idea
12/10/01: Regional transit tickets almost ready for test - "...took $61 million and nearly a decade to develop."
09/19/02: Universal transit ticket a success -- BART glitch
09/08/03: The All-Purpose Fare Card - "The Bay Area is close to having a single regional transit ticket..."
09/26/03: BART Directors to Join 'Smart Ticket' Plan
08/26/05: BART Credit Card in the Works - "ticket machines and fare gates won't be equipped to take the cards until late next year."
01/16/07: TransLink Glitch - "BART, [Muni] and Caltrain are expected to launch this year."
08/14/07: Glitches, spiraling costs may delay TransLink expansion - "It has been decades ... the program has ballooned from the original estimate of $25 million to $130 million today ..."
09/12/07: TransLink rollout set, but testing delayed for train systems - The MTC "hopes that this will be the last time the contractor has to announce a delay."
09/18/07: New Way to Pay for Transit Rides (Plus an article in Masstransit Mag: "TransLink, after nearly two decades ... is finally ready for rush hour.")
02/27/08: Dump Translink Firm, BART Official Urges - "ERG's general manager for the Americas described the TransLink project as being 'in really good shape.'"
Meanwhile: TransLink supplier ERG predicts $15m loss from 2006-07.
|
I've rarely had problems with TransLink on AC Transit. What's the holdup with Muni?!
For what it's worth, whenever I've called TransLink they've been unfailingly nice. Not something you see every day with a transit company.
Oh, and this is the best headline I've seen on SFist. Ever.
It's so depressing to see the nice system they have set up in Hong Kong, where you can even pay for stuff at 7-11 and at shops all over town with your Octopus card, only to return to the land of Muni / MTC disfunction.
Nice headline.
When they did the trial run, it worked great. I was a pilot tester and there was no major problems with the program itself. It was so nice to hitch on the ferry, and use the same card to board the metro with an automatic free ride.
Now, it's just a terrible mess. I understand that the program is in place on AC Transit and Golden Gate Transit/Ferry (and they both work GREAT), but what the hell is wrong with this damn project?
BART has been acting like little crybabies ever since they put in those new faregates and ticket machines. The new gates and machines DO NOT use Motorola/ERG's farecard system and uses Cubic's RFID card system, which is not easily compatible. BART knows that Cubic would be pissed off if the MTC and Translink gets their way, so why the hell would they use their own RFID card system for BART alone?
As for Muni, I kept pestering them to get the damn program running. Also, why is there card readers on the rear doors of the buses? Right off the bat, if they did not install on the rear, the cost for Muni installation would be cut in HALF.
My solution: Remember when part of the freeway ramp collapsed during that tanker fire? Maybe they should do a similar bidding process to get the project going. Offer a big multi million dollar bonus in exchange for a low bid on the project to install it on every bus, train, and whatnot within a certain time period. For every single day it is late, the smaller the bonus payout.
DuboceT: Interesting fact about the octopus card, it uses the exact same motorola technology as the translink program.
The point of the rear door Translink readers is to promote rear door boarding, to save time. But the system has to work first.
Nice headline btw.
If Octopus uses the same system, they could hire Octopus to run it, like in Dubai and Holland:
http://www.octopus.com.hk/company/en/index.jsp
I agree about the funny headline, along with "stumbling around like a rabid possum."
It's amazing how in San Francisco we make things that other places seem to do at a reasonable price these Herculean tasks that get a lot of money spent and a lot of excuses but not action:
http://www.njudahchronicles.com/2008/02/putting_the_blog_on_autopilot_more_trans.html
Between ERG's Translink implementation fiasco and the outrageously high (by European standards at least) expected costs for the Central Subway, I wonder whether there any government contractors in the US who can do a competent job at a reasonable price.
I guess the problem is that they've all been hopelessly corrupted by their association with the 5-sided DC bastion of crony capitalism; they're used to getting padded paychecks for halfassed, incomplete work.
Oh well, at least the Central Subway is only 1/100 the cost of ballistic missile defense. And, it promises to have more live chickens.
Between ERG's Translink implementation fiasco and the outrageously high (by European standards at least) expected costs for the Central Subway, I wonder whether there any government contractors in the US who can do a competent job at a reasonable price.
I guess the problem is that they've all been hopelessly corrupted by their association with the 5-sided DC bastion of crony capitalism; they're used to getting padded paychecks for halfassed, incomplete work.
Oh well, at least the Central Subway is only 1/100 the cost of ballistic missile defense. And, it promises to have more live chickens.
It's a good thing all that money didn't go to public schools!!!
This really, really shouldn't be that difficult. We have SmartTrip in DC and have had it for at least 10 years or more. In the last year, they brought on two other agencies. Just like that. In a year. And DC isn't the only ones, European systems are even more full featured. With smart cards working not just for transit, but integrated with other city services. In DC, we are trying to figure out how to expand the service by integrating the SmartTrip card into driver licenses. I don't understand how cities around the globe (even some outside of the first world!) can figure this shit out and right there the tech capital of America can't seem to figure this out.
So unbelievably embarrassing.
Much as I enjoy watching the shit-bucket being passed around once more, most who are involved should be taken out and shot. That includes that BART official just as much as the Chronicle. They ALL get an F- from me.
But in the end it's just our own fault. Of course, to many here public transit is dear. But even more people don't give a damn about Muni. Unless many more people cry for heads to roll (and mean it), it will be just another (expensive) tempest in the teapot.
I'm still figuring out how to hop on the bus with a $20 in my wallet.
London too. One card works for the subway and the bus. You just wave it over a sensor and it automatically charges you.
The London one is great. And it works over bus/subway/rail services run by dozens of different operators.
Kudos Akit for pointing out BART's (successful) efforts to stall the program due to the fact that they are beholden to Cubic (which used to be part of Westinghouse. It is also interesting to note that BART would be paying significantly more money to MUNI and other agencies through "transfers" from BART to MUNI busses or metro.
Doesn't it just seem so odd that places like London, Hong Kong, Washington DC, and even New York have decent "one card" fare systems for multiple services, and we have a piece of crap job?
And even more embarrassing, Translink runs on the exact same programming as Hong Kong's Octopus card! And Hong Kong's program is a major success story.
Here's a sample photo on this link:
http://www.chinaaustraliabusiness.net/image/photo/156_01.jpg
BART has been the worst problem with this Translink project. Why would they start a program with their own smart card when (allegedly) Translink would be rolling-out within the next year? It's because BART wants their own monopoly, and Translink will die if BART has it their way.
Say what you will about BART stalling Translink; but their current RFID program works better than Translink ever has.
Mattymatt: that's true. Since Cubic manufactures faregates and their own RFID system, of course it would work better. Installing a foreign program into a fare system would be a challenge.
@akit: Very true. But again that takes me to the example here. Now admittedly WMATA is our largest transit system which runs both trains and buses, BUT the SmartTrip card also works at least four different suburban transit systems with entirely different suppliers as well as an additional bus service in DC itself. There's also a SmartTrip combined with a MasterCard and will probably be added to our driver licenses. Vending machines are going in all over the area. And SmartTrip benefits can be automatically added by employers every month. This isn't rocket science. It's a standard way to run a transit system anymore. The fact that the Bay Area can't seem to figure out how to do this is really, really puzzling. And speaks of gross incompetence on someone's part.
I doubt this is a matter of the Bay Area transit agencies being unable to figure out how to do this. Implementing a universal transit card system is not rocket science, and it's not original. There are acres of documentation and manuals showing how it's done.
The one thing the documentation doesn't address is how to make the petty bureaucrats of the Bay Area's transit systems play nice with each other and stop acting like such cooperation is going to erode their silly little kingdoms.
TransLink is destined to fail because the people in charge simply do not want it.
I doubt this is a matter of the Bay Area transit agencies being unable to figure out how to do this. Implementing a universal transit card system is not rocket science, and it's not original. There are acres of documentation and manuals showing how it's done.
The one thing the documentation doesn't address is how to make the petty bureaucrats of the Bay Area's transit systems play nice with each other and stop acting like such cooperation is going to erode their silly little kingdoms.
TransLink is destined to fail because the people in charge simply do not want it.
I just want to go back to paying cash after all of this crap.
Huh. TransLink was working just fine for me on the metro until I started riding it frequently enough to justify a FastPass. For all the griping, I think that says a lot that it... you know... works.