Be sure to save your TransLink card for it will be a collector's item in the future. Today the new Clipper card, which will replace the Fast Pass and the clunky-named TransLink card, was revealed. You like? The BART/Muni/Ferry commuter pass is now drenched in lovely shades of blue. Also, it sports two nifty ships made of triangles. Bold. Anyway, Akit's Complaint Department is covering today's launch of the new card.

Just like the TransLink cards, Clippers are accepted on Muni, BART, AC Transit, Caltrain and Golden Gate Transit and Ferry, VTA and SamTrans.

Also, according to the Clipper site (side note: beware on Firefox about an untrusted certificate warning!), "for a limited time, there is no charge to get a Clipper card. Normally $5, the fee for a card is being waived starting June 16. This offer is available for a limited time and may be subject to change without notice."

Change is afoot in your commute, ladies and gentlemen. As of late June, you'll no longer be able to buy Muni Fast Passes online, and as of October those fun, colorful, ever-changing paper passes will disappear forever. Muni is forcing everyone to move over to the Translink system, WHICH, as of next week, will no longer be called Translink. It will heretofore henceforth be called Clipper, and all that Translink branding will need to be swapped out. (See that link for times when you can receive a free ClipperCard... otherwise they're $5.)

You have until October therefore to deal with your employee commuter check program (should you be so lucky) and get them to start filling your ClipperCard. Questions? See the FAQs.

All of this depresses us, and not just from a graphic design standpoint. No longer will we be able to mark time by the sometimes dated color combinations chosen by some mysterious Muni graphics department. And no longer will we have the charming distinction of being a city that still uses paper passes for their public transport system. Also, how can we trust that Muni, in its infinite wisdom, will make it easy for us to fill these cards? Change is not something that they do well. [SFMTA via Muni Diaries]

Reports have it that Muni plans on replacing our beloved paper FastPasses with the TransLink Card sometime later this year. Unless you're some kind of shut in, you have already seen the green and gray TransLink card readers all over your regular bus lines and Muni metro/BART stations as they have been testing the system for over a year now. So, what is this mysterious TransLink Card? It's a stored value card with a smart chip embedded on the surface that can be used to pay fares on AC Transit, BART, Caltrain, Golden Gate Transit & Ferry, and most (but not all) Muni lines. The card vaguely reminds this writer of phone cards we used to use back in the early '90s when we lived in Europe. Cutting edge technology!

Anyway, curious about how this TransLink Card worked, and feeling the need to seize control of our transportation destiny in the face of yet another wrath-inducing increase in the cost of the FastPass, we switched over to the TransLink Card at the beginning of January. After nearly six weeks of use, this is what we have found:

The Good

It's Convenient! Probably the best feature of the TransLink Card is the convenience factor. You want to get on the bus, you swipe the card. You want to ride BART, you swipe the card. You never even have to take the card out of your wallet. Just swipe, swipe, swipe. A real snap for the big city go-getter getting ready to go.

It's Flexible! Do you live in the city and only occasionally partake of service from any of the other of our region's fine transit agencies? Well then, you can buy a poor person's FastPass, load it onto your TransLink card, and throw on however many extra American dollars you might think you'll need to ride a bus around Oakland or take BART to SFO. Now you, the consumer, can maximize your transit riding value. Power!

Now that there are working Translink readers on all Muni busses and trains, we decided to get a card. The card-getting process is easy - just sign up on the site as a trial user and the card shows up a week or so later.

But actually using it? Not so much. We added value the other night, and will be taking the bus today. So, we went to the website to see if the deposit went through and the card is usable. Well, we tried. See, Translink doesn't let you check your balance online, only on the phone. We understand that they can only get your balances as of the previous business day. That's fine. But we've been able to get bank balances online since 1998 or so, guys. That's an annoying flaw.

So we called the number to get our balance, as instructed on the site. We entered the card serial number, and the robot voice said "your card cannot be found." This as we were reading the card serial number off of the My Translink page on the website. The only thing we can think of is that Translink is running off of different databases for Web and phone. Which would be crazy. Anyone out there know why this would happen?

Bottom line? We'll call customer service tonight when we have some time to figure out why our card doesn't exist, but we're still carrying quarters today.

A few things:

SFMTA is inviting an exclusive number of Muni customers to take part of the TransLink trial group and help get the system up to snuff. "The TransLink system is a new, convenient way to pay for transit rides in the Bay Area," claims the SFMTA site.

Except that it is not new -- it's been around for nearly 20 years. Sadly, for exactly zero of those years has it been a convenient way to pay for transit rides. Also, they've been in a trial phase for well over a year now, but we're splitting hairs here.

But the almost exciting news is this: SFist has been invited to Wednesday's SFMTA kick off party for the Muni trial of TransLink. (Who how what in the hell?!) And so have you! In addition to the promise of free hors d'oeuvres, you can learn how to get a free TransLink card and schmooze with public transit overlords. And more!

It happens tomorrow, Wednesday, 5 p.m.-7 p.m. at the SFMTA headquarters, One South Van Ness (the atrium, 2nd floor). RSVP to TransLinkRSVP[at]SFMTA[dot]com.

Ideally, we'd send SFist Matt Baume over with an armed escort, but even bodyguards packing heat might not be protective enough.

This TransLink card reader appears out of service on the SF Muni 29 line. Aw. What's more, the above photo was taken yesterday, July 15, 2008, the day Muni and Caltrain was supposed to slowly unleash TransLink on us. Alas.

Still? Grumble, grumble.