Hard to believe, but there is a ‘Smart’ card project even more badly managed than MTC’s Clipper:
The myki ticket system was initially supposed to be running by March 2007, but more than five years later it is still being introduced at a total cost of $1.52 billion – more than half the cost of NASA’s recent Mars mission.
It gets worse:
In a report last November the Victorian Ombudsman attacked the state’s handling of major information and communication technology (ICT) projects, including myki, saying there was too much acceptance of cost blowouts.
The Baillieu government initially considered scrapping myki, but opted to keep the troubled system with modifications after a review by accounting firm Deloitte found abandoning it would cost the state $1 billion.
Mr Carolan told the hearing no one on the Transport Ticketing Authority board had read the Deloitte review, which the government is fighting in the Supreme Court to keep secret. But he said the board had been briefed on the report, which has recommended to do away with short-term tickets and to not install myki ticket machines on trams.
But wouldn’t you agree that, despite initial mishaps, Clipper has been largely ironed out and is steadily increasing in popularity? I was an early adopter, and while there were some issues, I find the system to be fairly stress free today. Also–I’d argue that a significant portion of clipper’s problems stem from the fact that so many transit agencies in the region don’t have dedicated faregates (most of Muni, all of Caltrain, etc), thus requiring clipper to develop some almost-unavoidable unintuitive policy to take payments from riders
$500 million (and counting) buys a lot of Stockholm Syndrome it seems.
Clipper(tm) (brought to you by the same people who sell faregates, amazingly enough!) is also a comparative success by the metrics of “hasn’t yet raped any children” and “hasn’t shot any puppies”. Pity it fails totally on the “increases public transportation use” and “increases public transportation cost effectiveness” fronts.
It “steadily increases in popularity” because MTC’s limitlessly corrupt executive staff, acting in the direct financial interests of the Cliipper contractor, have prohibited transit agencies from putting their customers’ interests before those of Cubic, Inc. Freedom of choice, corporatist style! Cubic has 100% “popularity” in the10 ride Caltrain, the 30 day AC pass, and the Muni monthly pass markets! It just shows that people love love love rent-seeking pork-swilling defense contractors and want to give them their hard earned fares and tax dollars.
You know, there’s still no way at any Caltrain station (outside of Diridion, IIRC) to refill your Clipper Card. Even the VTA installed the ability on their light rail vending machines.
Lots of people seem to believe that there are no Clipper machines at Caltrain stations, and that’s probably Caltrain’s fault for not publicizing them. I regularly use Clipper add-value machines at 4th & King and Palo Alto stations. The BART ticket machines on the northbound Caltrain platform at Millbrae station also add value to Clipper cards. I’ve heard rumors of machines at Redwood City and Mt View, but I don’t use either station.
I haven’t seen any at Mt View. Also, they are at 4th and King? They weren’t for a long time.
Someone at Caltrain must have the job of determining the most obscure possible location for the add value machines. At 4th & King two are located just outside the waiting room, on the back side of one of the columns. They’ve been there since nearly the beginning of Clipper use on Caltrain, but they didn’t work for several months after installation. if one tends to come/go from the Townsend side of the station, they aren’t at all obvious…
Also, most of the Walgreens stores in San Francisco have a Clipper reload service. There’s a Walgreens at 670 Fourth St. which is just across the street from the Caltrain terminal.
Here in Southern California, our LA Metro has been working on their TAP card system for what seems like years and they’re still getting unhappy comments about it. Time to bring back conductors and Ohmer fare registers!