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Association for Public Transportation, Inc.

The Automated Fare Collection Project:
A New Frontier for the MBTA

A Joint Meeting of the MBTA and the Association for Public Transportation, Inc.

26 April 2004, 5:30 p.m.

Meeting notes by Barry M. Steinberg

For the MBTA:

For APT:

The meeting began with a PowerPoint presentation by the MBTA. The text when quoted is in italics.

The Vision:

Project Management: Touches Every Department

The Integration of the Projects Will Result in More Effective and Efficient

Major Components of the Project

These are intended to be separate projects.

These systems will support the following

Enhanced Antenna Sites:

These will involve leasing spots on existing towers. This will provide 95% coverage within the Route 128 belt and 80% of the commuter rail network.

Station Management Today:

Customer Service Agents
Replacing Existing System. They will be assigned to single stations.

Hub Stations

Hub Station Management

Function of Hub Stations

This will take the form of locations highly visible to the public, which is better than a location at Central Control.

AFC Equipment Key Milestones

Barry Andelman: Has another city adopted this model?

--We are benefiting from the experiences of other cities, namely Washington, Chicago, London and Hong Kong. That being said, no one is doing the same combination we are.

Jeffrey Parker: Chicago has the same station management philosophy. We have a tremendous prepaid pass program. We are trying to transition them to smart cards. The idea of installing all this equipment and not closing token booths [is inappropriate]. None of these systems did fare boxes at the same time.

John Kyper: Would you still have unlimited-ride monthly passes?

Parker: Initially, yes. The monthly pass program was designed for today’s system. We have to separate this out, with the possibility [?—ed.] of a flexible system.

Anne Herzenberg: Changes would be to provide enhanced flexibility.

Parker: The concept of best value: You are paying per trip, but when you get to a certain value, then you would have free service.

Steve Berrang: For the [initial] period, there is going to be no change. [When the entire system is installed, there will be an opportunity to do more than simply replicate the existing system.]

Herzenberg: With or without a fare increase, there will be a disassociation of fares and fare structure. As long as we have the same revenue, so that people have the same value. This will not be available on Day One.

Barry Steinberg: Will the fare boxes ‘know’ where they are? A. No, but the buses will. Q. That means the buses and the fare boxes won’t intercommunicate? A. That’s right. Q. And so, you won’t be able to have a sophisticated system in which the fare can be calculated on the basis of a multi-vehicle A to B ride, regardless of how many vehicles you need to ride to get there? I would envision a fare calculated post facto, in which the fare box registers the coördinates of the origin point and those of the destination point, and factors in the speed of the trip. The faster the trip, the more charged.

A. This would involve a complicated entry and exit procedure. There will not be an entrance ‘swipe’ and an exit ‘swipe’. This was a conscious decision on our part.

Steinberg: What about commuter rail collection?

Herzenberg: MBCR has an incentive in their contract to collect their fares. This is not a technology solution, rather a management solution.

Arnold Reinhold: What about a system where I could call up the system to find out when the bus is coming, and have it call me back when the bus is about to arrive?

Herzenberg: We might be able to make this available in time.

Reinhold: How much of this is off the shelf?

Berrang: Much of it. What is customized for us is the software. The farebox is composed of off-the-shelf technology.

We have had valuable input from focus groups: Two customer, one disabled community and two with employees.

Parker: Creasing issue: If you bend the [New York City] Metrocard the wrong way, you get an "error". People have figured the way around this. Creased cards are good for one ride. So people creased invalid cards.

This is not an example of a design flaw. A conscious decision was made to let people through.

John Hostage: Will these machines take a credit card, cash and anything else?

Berrang: They will have to. This [capability] is commercially available, not a new technology.

Hostage: At Anderson RTC, you can buy a ticket only to Boston, nowhere else on the same line.

John Kyper: I have gotten on at Malden Center going to Haverhill and the conductor never collected my fare, because he already had made his pass of the train.

Kyper: Will the token booths be removed?

Berrang: No, but they will be used for storing equipment.

Andelman: System-wide radio.

Berrang: There is an internal radio system for police and operations people. It has nine channels. But we have a license for twenty digital channels. We have an old system, with an old antenna system, without spare capacity. [Utilizing the digital channels will give us much more flexibility.]

Hostage: "Station agent" is a different skill set from those of a token seller.

Berrang: There is to be a training system.

Parker: This is a challenge on everyone’s part to get this system to work. There are going to be tremendous benefits, but there are also going to be bumps along the way. We are going to do our best. There are going to be five days of comprehensive training and refresher courses, working with front-line supervisors.

Berrang: A lot of the "iron maiden" exits are going to be changed to other systems. But egress is important.

Andelman: If you want to use us as a focus group or individuals as sounding boards, please contact us.