BART's limited rollout of Translink begins Monday, August 3
BART's limited rollout of Translink begins Monday, August 3
On Sunday, August 2, 2009, BART fare gates will receive a software upgrade that will allow the acceptance of TransLink cards in preparation for the limited rollout of TransLink fare payment throughout the system on Monday, August 3. BART engineers will observe the system as the new software is integrated. During this observation period, it may be possible to use a TransLink card on the fare gates, but because of the chance of software or hardware issues, it is not recommended.
Select BART EZ Rider cardholders will be invited to try out TransLink on BART and give us feedback on their experience starting August 3. This group will involve a limited number of participants.
Anyone else with a TransLink card is welcome to use it on BART once the limited rollout period begins on August 3, as long as they have a TransLink card loaded with sufficient e-cash (electronic cash), an adult Muni Fast Pass, or a BART High Value Discount ticket (which can only be added online at www.translink.org beginning Monday, August 3). You can sign up for a TransLink card at any time through the TransLink website: www.translink.org.
Because passengers are always responsible for fare payment, please be sure to bring along other means of payment such as an EZ Rider card, a BART blue ticket or cash as a backup during the limited rollout of TransLink on BART.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT BART'S TRANSLINK ROLLOUT
Q: When does the BART TransLink limited rollout period begin and end?
A: It will start Monday, August 3, 2009 and continue for about five months.
Q: What is the limited rollout?
A: The rollout will involve a limited number of BART EZ Rider customers who will be invited to use TransLink transit cards on BART and other participating transit systems.
Q: If I already have a TransLink card, for use on Muni, for example, can I use my card on BART during the rollout period?
A: Even if you’re not part of the rollout group, your TransLink card will work on BART after the rollout period begins August 3. To work on BART, your TransLink card must be loaded with e-cash (electronic cash), a BART High Value Discount ticket (which can only be added online at www.translink.org beginning Monday, August 3) or a Muni Fast Pass (for travel between BART stations within San Francisco only). Please be sure to bring along other means of payment as backup during the rollout period.
Q: If I'm not invited to participate in the rollout group, can I apply for a TransLink card anyway and try it out on BART during the rollout period?
A: Yes.
Q: I use pre-tax vouchers to pay for my BART High Value Discount ticket. Can I use vouchers when I sign up online to add the High Value Discount to my TransLink card?
A: No. At this time the High Value Discount ticket is only available through autoload on your TransLink card. Autoload payments are linked to a credit card.
Q: Should I continue to carry my EZ Rider card or a BART ticket after I get a TransLink card?
A: Yes. Passengers are always responsible for fare payment. Please be sure to bring along other means of payment such as an EZ Rider card, a BART blue ticket or cash as backup during the rollout period.
Finally! I used Translink
Finally! I used Translink this morning with no problems. Hopefully I can trash my EZ Rider card soon...
Worked fine for me this
Worked fine for me this morning. The translink site has autoload options for 45/48 and 60/64 discount tickets now as well.
WTF, no Commute Checks for
WTF, no Commute Checks for Translink? What the hell are they thinking?
Can you put Commute Checks on
Can you put Commute Checks on EZRider?
When I tried to get Commute Checks at a couple stores near my house recently they were all sold out.
BART seems to be doing everything in their power to keep people from saving money on their daily commute.
Huh? You don't buy Commute
Huh? You don't buy Commute Checks at a store; you get them through your employer (using pre-tax money). Do you mean that the store was sold out of BART high value tickets? I get that all the time ... I don't think it's anything nefarious by BART, just stores that don't manage their inventory very well.
But what IS nefarious is that BART will let you buy BART high-value credits (3% discount) on Translink using cash or credit ... and Translink will let you purchase generic Translink credits (0% discount) using a Commute Check ... but BART will NOT let you purchase BART high-value credits on Translink using your commute checks.
Like I said: WTF?
My mistake, I meant
My mistake, I meant high-value tickets.
The last couple times I tried to trade my commute checks for high-value tickets I was told that they were sold out and that they hadn't been able to get any new ones.
And the last time I tried it was almost impossible to get commute checks put on an EZRider account, so I just have to use high-value tickets for now...
Apparently hell froze over as
Apparently hell froze over as soon as I left town. Didn't realize I had that much power.
... and of course just as
... and of course just as with the EZ-Rider cards those of us who are disabled and use the disabled fare are excluded from using Translink unless we pay full price. If muni can figure out how to make disabled and discount fares work on these cards why can't BART?
BART doesn't care, and
BART doesn't care, and management wants to do anything they can to avoid giving people discounted fares.
What do you have to do to
What do you have to do to verify to BART that you qualify for a disabled discount? Most likely Translink has to jump through a bunch of hoops for each agency to avoid abuse of the discount and they haven't gone through that for BART yet. They are still in testing mode.
You just need a RDC (Regional
You just need a RDC (Regional Discount Card) which you are supposed to have at all times when you are using the discounted tickets and the translink cards that are issued to RTC holders are made to look like the RDC card itself so there a photo of you on it in case someone wants to verify you are legit and the card is coded so the hard work is in reality already done BART just needs to add the ability for us to buy BART fare at the discount. Of course if the translink card is only seen as "cash" or a "pass" the way BART does the discounts makes this impossible since the "cash" on the card would then be available to use on other systems like Muni. I can understand why BART choose to make the discount work the way it does in 1973 when the system opened but come on it's 35+ years later and you're telling me you can't manage a separate fare schedule for the discount tickets?
Anybody cancel their EZRider
Anybody cancel their EZRider card yet?
I'm holding onto mine until I
I'm holding onto mine until I am sure everything is ok.
Worked ok for me. However,
Worked ok for me. However, the fare gates hesitated a little as though they needed a moment to figure out what's going on. The downside is that, unlike with the buses and Muni, you cannot see your balance. Another downside was that I tried to board an AC Transit bus and there was no Translink reader.
Tried mine this evening,
Tried mine this evening, worked fine. And the fare gates *did* tell me my remaining balance, so perhaps that functionality is still buggy or only in place in certain locations. (FWIW, I went from El Cerrito Del Norte to Lake Merritt and back)
Does anyone know if inter-agency transfer discounts are supported yet? (i.e. the 25 cents or whatever it is when going from BART to MUNI) I know I know... keep dreaming.
I wonder if BART will make it a pain in the ass to get the remaining value on your EZ-Rider card refunded once the Translink integration goes official, or if they'll try to hold onto it as unearned revenue like with the low-value paper tickets.
I think I remember an FAQ
I think I remember an FAQ somewhere saying that the final changeover process would include a way to transfer an ezrider balance to a translink card. I don't imagine that would happen until the soft-launch/testing is over with.
I just got an email back from
I just got an email back from the EZ Rider people at BART. They say that they will not transfer any personal information to Translink including account balances. You'll need to sign up for Translink and then close your EZ Rider account, you'll get a refund when BART gets their EZ Rider card back.
One thing that BART's
One thing that BART's EZ-Rider has which I do wish Translink had is a way to see a list of your recent usage online. I've found it useful both in determining how much I actually use BART, as well as for reconstructing my days when writing up my notes for work about when I went to various clients. (at least on those days when I took BART there)
Sometimes you have to wait a day or so for the most recent EZ-Rider transactions to show up, but it's still better than how they do it on Translink, which requires submitting a request, then they send you a request confirmation email, then MAYBE several days later you MIGHT receive a record of your usage in an email.
Or you might get nothing at all, as seems to have been the case the last several times I've tried to use that feature.
One wonders if they have someone whose job is to manually go and dig up the requested data and make a PDF, then eMail it out every time someone makes such a request.
Hopefully at some point (soon... plz) Translink will offer something analogous to what EZ-Rider has. Anyone else use this feature much?
Yep, use that feature all the
Yep, use that feature all the time, and it's next to impossible to get a transaction history on Translink; if you're lucky enough to get it, it certainly won't be timely. As you indicated, there must be someone in the back office generating these PDFs that are then emailed out to you. I take the EZ Rider system any day. I would never use Translink on BART if I had a choice in the matter and I'm happy to use EZ Rider as long as I can (plus Translink doesn't do BART parking). I need a transaction history for Transit reimbursement and can barely get it for Translink; EZ Rider on the other hand maybe up to 24 hours behind but that's still pretty timely (Translink tells you 5 business days and you still don't have it). Hopefully someone at BART will actually listen before they eventually transition to Translink and make them do their homework. In the meantime, I'll stick with EZ Rider.