Big changes coming to Clipper card.
Mobile payments would be enabled, and train and bus operators would have greater flexibility to offer discounts
Say hello to Clipper 2.0: Mobile payments, family plans on one card, and greater flexibility for discounts and promotions are all on the way.
That is, in a couple of years. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is expected to approve nearly a half-billion dollars in upgrades to the blue train, bus and ferry passes at a Sept. 26 meeting — more than double the cost of the current, $170 million contract, which expires in 2019.
The contract will keep the current provider, Cubic, Inc., in place for another 13 years with options to extend beyond that.
The $461 million contract is mostly funded, Carol Kuester, the director of electronic payments for MTC, said at a meeting Friday, but there is an $88 million shortfall that will have to come from future federal funds, even though those funds have yet to be awarded.
And, the MTC will also need to pay an estimated $213.2 million for additional services related to Clipper — including customer service, payment processing and the cards themselves — with a mix of state and local funds.
That brings the cost of the new Clipper service to roughly $674.2 million, or nearly $52 million per year, more than three times the cost of the current contract.
But it’s about the same as the MTC would have paid if it hadn’t changed the contract, said MTC spokesman Randy Rentschler, because of the cost of inflation.
The new contract, however, allows the MTC to introduce new functions over time, while keeping the current system in place, he said.
If you’re happy with your Clipper card and don’t want it to change, that’s fine, Rentschler said. You can keep using your card now and into the future.
If the contract is approved, the first and most obvious change will come sometime in 2020, when customers will be able to use an app to pay for bus, train and ferry rides, he said.
Transit passengers will be able to use their smartphone in lieu of a Clipper card, tapping a phone at the fare gate rather than a card.
And they’ll be able to add money or make payments from the app, he said.
“It behaves like your card, but it’s your phone,” Rentschler explained. “So, for those people who don’t like carrying a bunch of cards, this will help you get rid of it.”
One of the less-than-obvious changes will be the switch from a card-based system to an account-based system, he said. Right now, customers can register a card, but can’t add multiple cards to the same account.
Future accounts will be more like FasTrak, where one account holder can have multiple FasTrak devices, or license plates, linked to the same account. And the Clipper accounts will allow for new options, like family plans, Rentschler said.
The full conversion to the new system is expected to be completed by 2021, when train and bus operators will be able to more easily offer discounts and promotions to riders.
By that time, it will also be easier to work with colleges,
universities and employers that want to offer special transit passes to their students or workers. Transit riders are expected to be fulled transitioned to the new system by 2023.
The contract also includes $165 million to replace equipment in hundreds of stations, thousands of buses and light-rail vehicles, and hundreds of ticket vending machines.
Sometime in the future, Rentschler said, it may also be possible to use Clipper to pay for private services, such as Uber and Lyft, Lime and Jump bikes, Bird scooters or paratransit. But, the MTC wants to roll out the first changes before making the system too complex, he said.
“Without raising expectations too high, we are on the verge of having one
card that can do all those things for you,” he said. “It’s a possibility, but it’s not in the operating plan.”
The costly contract and the fact that Cubic was the sole bidder raised some eyebrows with transit advocates, who questioned whether taxpayers were
getting a fair deal. Part of what makes the contract unattractive to other firms is its complexity, Kuester said. Clipper handles payment for more than 21 million bus, train and ferry trips each month from 22 separate transit agencies, and each has its own set of rules for who qualifies for discounts and how to price tickets.
The MTC should have sought first to create a standard set of fares for all train and bus operators, said Joshua Davis, a member of the advocacy organization, East Bay for Everyone.
“There was only one bidder because the other ones seem to be scared of the complexity of the rules,” Davis said. “We can implement a simpler system that’s easier for riders, that will cost taxpayers less money and have less risk.”
The MTC has tried to implement standard bus and train fares in the past, Rentschler said.
But, opposition from transit agencies killed those earlier efforts, he said. And, there was a desire among transit agencies to see some upgrades to the current system sooner, rather than later.
“Clipper, by its very nature, is a technical solution to a political problem,” Rentschler said, adding the problem is getting the Bay Area’s more than two dozen bus, train and ferry operators to agree to a common set of ticket prices.
At the Fruitvale BART station this week, bus and train riders were generally pleased with the current system and said the changes would be welcome, too.“I’m happy with the card, but that’s great to hear about the improvements,” said Dewayne Cecil, a Berkeley resident.
Others were surprised these changes hadn’t come sooner.
“Especially, being where we are (in the Bay Area), it’s long overdue,” said Damien Anderson, of Oakland. “They have those functions in Europe, and somehow we can’t seem to figure it out.”