Day Around the Bay
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We roll our eyes whenever politicians whine about Muni losing money (public transportation is not a for-profit enterprise anywhere), we do get frustrated when we see pass-fakers, gate-crashers, and other reasons that showcase how antiquated the Muni fare collection system is. See, if Muni could actually collect the fares that people are supposed to pay, they would have more money to maintain things and (fantasy world here) have things show up on time.
We got the above transfer this morning at nine a.m. We weren't planning on taking Muni anywhere else today, but...well, now, why not? Translink, where the hell are you?
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They gave you a transfer THIS MORNING that expires at 9:30PM? What a deal! Just another way Muni is losing money while Nat Ford rakes in nearly $300,000 yearly in salary.
Before I began buying monthly passes, I've also seen the opposite ... drivers handing out transfers that have already expired or close to expiring when you board the bus.
They need little printer machines for these things to keep it fair and to avoid printing a bunch of these transfer slips for every day of the year that may not be needed.
But, yeah, Muni has a lot of potential to cut back their current spending, in my opinion. Fuel costs cannot be controlled, but tossing away revenue by handing out all day passes can.
Perhaps they could subcontract the selling of transfers to the guys that already spend all day hanging out by busy stops trying to sell transfers.
akit, just for the record it's not nearly $300,000, it's $336,000. he got a 38k raise last year.. as a reward for the smooth transition when the T line started, i guess.
uh, complaining about freeloaders and then, um, freeloading?
Here's an insider tip that was commented on my blog:
I work with MTC on TransLink and saw your Talk post on Yelp. Muni and Caltrain should be ready relatively soon (I am not going to give out the (un)official revenue-ready date).
To answer yours and other question about using the card on Caltrain and Muni -
1) Muni is a flat-fare system and all buses, card readers on poles (at all the stations) and card readers on the faregates should deduct $1.50 when you tag on. You then have a live transfer on Muni valid for the next 90 minutes. Payment enforcement officers should carry a handheld card reader that will allow them to check if each card is valid for travel. Of course, since it is still in testing phase, I doubt officers walk around with the card readers now, and I have heard anecdotal stories that if you flash them the card, they just wave you through.
You can also purchase a Muni fast pass on the Translink card and have it renew every month if you setup an autoload on the translink website with a conneciton to a credit card, which takes away the hassle of having to purchase it every month.
2) Caltrain should employ a tag-on tag-off system at each of their stations (similar to the current Golden Gate Transit method). You will also be able to buy monthly, ten-ride, and other caltrain products depending on which origin and destination zone you prefer.
http://www.akit.org/2008/06/whats-wrong-with-translink-san.html
Last I checked, TransLink was... wait for it... wait... wait... ON THE VEHICLES.
Sigh.
'Course fare enforcement is nice, but how much will it cost?
I once got a Late Night Special transfer at 4pm from a 49 Van Ness driver. I gloated about my good fortune until the station agent at Van Ness Station confiscated my transfer and issued me a 90 minute turnstile transfer. Foiled again!
How about the full stack (like straight off a bus) of fresh, free transfers sitting on a newspaper stand in North Beach on Saturday? That was awesome.
Genies, Unicorns, Translink, Magic Carpets, etc.
im still using my November 2007 Fast Pass and am quite happy with my return on investment.
i flashed it to a station agent this morning, again, without incident.
I tried my translink again for the first time in over two years. It worked like a charm on AC and also on Muni. Just ignore the "Testing in Progress" message and tag the card anyway.
see for the last 20 years Chicago, NYC, London (all the "international" cities that SF supposedly ranks with) have had this little magnetic swipe cards usable on all buses and lite rail that deduct the correct amount, be it regular fare or transfer, ever time and can be reloaded at any number of kiosks through out the cities.
10 years ago these cities introduced the RFID cards similar to translink which not only automatically deduct and reload from, like fasttrack, but also give you a small cash bonus, like an extra buck for every ten you load, as an incentive to use the cards.
So if you qualify for a transfer you get it automatically, if you are past the time window it deducts the regular fare automatically.
Isn't technology amazing? To bad SF is such a tech back water that no one can figure out how to implement a rfid card system that has been around and working in other major cities for 10 years.
Can we get Steve Wozniack or some of those retired googlianers to volunteer some time and get this crap working?
I think the issue with Translink, like the Bay Bridge and just about everything else, is one of local politics. We don't just have to make a system that works for Muni (though we probably should have by now), but they're trying to make one that goes between various other local transit agencies. Hell, just the fact that BART is used within the city creates problems because it suddenly means that we need to throw BART into the mix most of the time and then that tends to start drawing in everyone for the various places that BART goes.
I'd also say that Muni's fare collection system is terrible and poorly thought out. You can pay with dollar bills everywhere but fare gates... even on the trains that the gates lead to. We have gates, but they don't really do anything but print out a receipt that you need to carry with you making the very idea of an access-limited gate kind of pointless. Of course, we can't get rid of that system entirely because the damn subway is also a half-assed streetcar/light rail system that people can board (and then wait forever while it gets stuck in traffic) on the street. We have two competing subway systems that overlap for most of their routes (not to mention a big portion of the F) and neither of which makes very many stops. Still, BART does a much, much better job of transit within the city than Muni, but costs more.
We desperately need a full subway system. It's the only sensible way to handle transit here. Not the central subway. It might help if it goes to North Beach, but at present it's three stops are so close together that if you're coming from any place not already on the line it'll probably make more sense to just walk there than get off the train, walk to the connecting station, and then transfer.
It's a 42 mile, very dense city. Subways are the only reasonable solution. Everyone else figured this out over 100 years ago.
I was just thinking about this... since we all hate Muni Metro and their totally old and busted faregates, why don't they just rip them out and put ticket machines that do take $5 bills and Translink card readers?
They already do the honor system on outdoor platforms and at all stations!
If Muni was smart, they'd get all citizens on the Translink program and we'd all zoom through. If Translink goes dead, maybe the city should consider investing in pre-paid ticket machines at major bus stops so that boarding can be faster and passengers don't have to pay the fareboxes.
They've been looking at options like what Akit described for years. As I understand it the reason to keep the fare gates is security: they keep guys who would otherwise hang out on the platforms and not take the train from doing so.
For better or worse they are now retrofitting many of the old turnstiles with Translink readers. (e.g. at Castro.) If these work this will be fine for a while, so long as Translink vending machines are also available.