Today marks Elliot Sander’s final day as CEO and Executive Director of the MTA. He had a short and tumultuous run, but it was among the best in MTA history. In a series of exit interviews with the press, Sander, ever a forward-looking transit optimist, dropped word of a payment system that could arrive as early as 2011 if the MTA puts it all together. Sander said that the MTA is looking to replace the magnetic strips of the current MetroCards with a smart-card/E-ZPass payment system that could tie in subway, bus and commuter fares as well as bridge and tunnel tolls. The system would automatically bill users as an E-ZPass does and could link the MTA, PATH and New Jersey Transit as well.
For more on this long-awaited technological development, check out coverage in The Post and The Daily News. I’m glad Sander is still focusing on the future of transit in New York City even as he heads out the door at the MTA.
6 comments
I love the technology, I just hope they make sure it’s easy for visitors to buy a 7-day pass and stuff like that. Not everyone that rides the subway would need a permanent ez-pass to have to carry around. Also I wonder how the single-fare rides would work? Would they just have separate cash turnstiles or would you get a disposable ez-pass?
The system will probably be like in Boston (or DC I guess): RFID cards for available for anybody that wants them – permanent, daily users mostly – but the standard magnetic cards are still available for everyone else.
Passes vs pay-per-ride will be simple or difficult for the user depending on how the TVMs and future online accounts are set up. The PATH Smartlink does this already and it’s pretty user-friendly… if I remember correctly – I haven’t played around much with it (since I don’t often go to Jersey) but I remember having no problems with it.
They keep saying they will have something you can use on PATH, but no one appears to have ever taken PATH to realize that the Port Authority has a perfectly good contactless card in place and has had it for a while already. Why can’t the MTA adopt this system and start putting it into place now?
I remember that they were supposed to be working to create one card, but for some reason the MTA just isn’t satisfied with the SmartLink.
I have a problem with the news story though: the “30 stations” in the 4 boroughs are for an initial trial phase right? And I think having all these different types of 1day/weekly/monthly along with regular Pay-Per-Rides would seriously complicate both users and the MTA since the RFID cards need to be thicker than the current paper-thin Metrocards. So selling or having lots of these would mean more storage space (TVM would be more limited) and your wallet would be more fat.
Otherwise, I CANT WAIT until we finally catch up to the rest of the world with smartcards!
I think the challenge is that the Metrocard actually stores the value on the card itself, it doesn’t check it against, and update a central database when swiped (this is how buses work, and why the “folded-Metrocard” scam works). As far as I know, an RFID device is read-only, so the balance would have to be stored in a central database at all times. For subways, it would require an “always-on” wired connection, and for buses, some sort of reliable wireless link. This would be a much more difficult task than bringing a network connection to just 13 PATH stations on two lines.
Hey Scott,
Hong Kong’s Octopus card was the world’s first smartcard deployed for public use. It doesn’t have to be constantly in touch with a central database, but is relayed at intervals.
From Wikipedia:
“Octopus is specifically designed so that card transactions are relayed for clearing on a store and forward basis, without any requirement for reader units to have realtime round-trip communications with a central database or computer.[57] The stored data about the transaction may be transmitted by network after hours, or in the case of offline mobile readers may be retrieved by a hand held device, for example a Pocket PC.
In practice, different data collection mechanisms are used by different transport operators, depending on the nature of their business. The MTR equips its stations with local area networks that connect the components that deal with Octopus cards—turnstiles, Add Value Machines, value-checking machines and customer service terminals. Transactions from these stations are relayed to the MTR’s Kowloon Bay headquarters through a frame relay wide area network, and hence onwards to the central clearing house system (CCHS) for clearing.[58] Similar arrangements are in place for retailers such as 7-Eleven. Handheld devices are used to scan offline mobile readers, including those installed on minibuses. Buses either use handheld devices or a wireless system, depending on operator.[58]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_Card