MARC Discontinuance of 10-Trip Tickets

[Rafi]

While getting off the MARC yesterday, my train's conductor mentioned to me in passing that MARC is seriously considering discontinuing use of 10-trip tickets in the very near future. Apparently there's been a serious problem with people replacing the "chads" in punched tickets, and to save a lot of headache (and money), they're considering just limiting ridership to Monthly, Weekly, and Single-Ride.

I can understand their position, but at the same time, the 10-trip has become invaluable to me on weeks where I'm on business travel; I'll purchase weeklies for the other weeks of the month, but use the 10-trip to fill in the gaps on the week that I'm partially out of town.

I guess our best route is to just write MARC via the MTA feedback page, which I'm going to do now.

Just wanted to throw this out there in case someone else knew more than I do.

-Rafi

 

[sechs]

Do conductors still punch tickets on MARC?

Caltrain changed to a proof-of-payment system wherein ten-ride tickets need to be validated before riding. The validation machines punch *and* date the tickets.

 

[Sam Damon]

If true, this is a typical boneheaded "management" move by individuals not worthy of the title. Those types typically act like this:

User, to developer: "My text editor crashes when I edit text."

Developer, to user: "Don't edit text."

Perhaps MARC managers went to the Henny Youngman School of Management?

 

[Rafi]

Just as an update, I sent an email to MARC management and received the following reply, which really surprised me. I'll be very curious to see how exactly they implement the technology on board; I assume all MARC conductors will be carrying bar code readers.

---

The ten trip ticket has proven very popular with the riders that are not

on 5 day schedules. However, we also some serious concerns with

fraudulent use of this ticket type.

As you may know, we are moving toward a Smart Card type of fare

collection, similar to Metro's. We expect that many of the fraud

related issues will be elevated by this new technology. There are no

immediate plans to discontinue the 10 trip ticket.

 

[Trogdor]

The issues of fraud will be "elevated" with smart cards?

Also, Smart Cards don't have bar codes, so the conductors won't have bar code readers.

 

[Rafi]

The issues of fraud will be "elevated" with smart cards?


Also, Smart Cards don't have bar codes, so the conductors won't have bar code readers.

Yeah, their grammar/spelling notwithstanding, it was an interesting email. And you're correct about the abscence of a barcode; I assume they're talking about WMATA's SmarTrip cards, which are waved past a reader and funds are withdrawn from the card's balance. I have to assume that instead of carrying a monetary balance, the MARC cards will just carry a 10-trip balance, or be tagged for monthly or weekly. Either way, I guess it means new equipment for the conductors.