re: good finish $1.02 MTC plans to expand farecard planBy Lisa...

re: good finish $1.02
MTC plans to expand farecard plan
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

OAKLAND - The Bay Area will roll-out Translink, a universal electronic transit farecard, with or without BART.

In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission agreed to expand Translink from a small pilot program to a full-scale service.

Within a year, staffers say, riders will be able to use Translink on Golden Gate buses and ferries. AC Transit, San Francisco MUNI, Samtrans and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will follow.

Whether BART -- the backbone of the Bay Area transit network -- joins the Translink family rests in the hands of its board, which has scheduled the question for a vote today.

BART directors last month declined to join unless the commission guarantees $9 million to retrofit its ticket sales machines for Translink.

The commission refused, although it did pledge to use proceeds of a proposed $1 bridge toll hike for the purpose. The Legislature approved SB 916, which places the toll question on the March ballot, but it must still secure the governor's signature and voters' support.

BART's faregates also need a Translink retrofit, and the commission will pay 80 percent of the $14 million cost.

Project managers will also create a separate electronic account on Translink that mimics BART's discount ticket program at a cost to the commission of $4 million.

In both cases, commission staffers disagreed with BART's demands but conceded in an attempt to keep the large transit operator at the table.

The commission finally had to say no, said board Chairman Steve Kinsey.

"We've told BART, more or less, that we're out of money," said Kinsey, a Marin County supervisor. "With or without the support of BART at this time, it's appropriate for us to implement Phase II."

BART and MTC have for years had a philosophical clash of cultures.

Their disputes helped delay the project more than a year and drive up costs to $79 million, double the original estimates.

Translink allows commuters to use a single card with an embedded computer chip -- called a smart card -- to pay fares on bus, rail or ferry services. A patron passes the card over a reader, which electronically deducts the fare from a prepaid account.

BART leaders say the extra time and money will give their riders a more convenient card.

For example, the agency finds ludicrous the idea that a commuter could not add fare to a Translink card in every train station, just as he or she can with a paper ticket.

In contrast, Translink project managers say the engineering-driven culture at BART protects a outdated ticketing system and resists change.

Translink, they say, means riders never need to visit a vending machine.

A commuter can add fare to a Translink card electronically through a function called auto-load. It permits the automatic addition of money to the Translink account from a patron's credit card.