CHICAGO (WBBM)  - Top Regional Transportation Authority officials say if the CTA opts to replace its existing fare cards with standard credit cards embedded with a smart chip, that Pace and Metra also must get on board.

RTA officials made it clear Thursday that they view the credit cards as the likely solution to the agency’s 25-year quest to develop a universal fare card.

As recently as 2005, RTA officials shelved proposals for a single card that could be used to ride the CTA, Metra and Pace because of the costs of the necessary hardware and software – up to $170 million.

Instead, RTA Chairman Jim Reilly said, the RTA and its transit agencies could partner with credit card issuers who could be expected to shoulder a large part of the changeover and maintenance costs.

“If we don’t get active in this, we’ll be back four or five years from now in the same mess, if you will, where the CTA will have a system, Pace will have a system and Metra will have a system, and never the twain shall meet,” he said.

Reilly said the RTA missed such an opportunity once before, in the 1970s, when it began to oversee Chicago-area transit operations.

His executive director, Steve Schlickman, said if CTA chooses to go forward, the rest of the Chicago area’s transit agencies must do so also, but he sounded a note of caution.

“It’s not proven yet that this is going to work well, particularly in this economy and what’s happening at banks,” he said.  “If we’re relying on banks that are having trouble with their own stability, I’m wondering how much they can really produce in the way of promises, like providing the infrastructure that’s needed for this.”

RTA Deputy Executive Director LeeAnn Redden said that all three transit agencies would stand to benefit from a sharp reduction in the personnel needed to collect money from fare card vending machines, processing and distributing existing fare cards and maintaining the equipment. 

She said a recent study by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority showed that as much as 40 cents of every dollar in fares paid go toward collection costs.  Redden said the fees charged by credit card companies would be minuscule by comparison, and can be negotiated by transit agencies at less than 2 percent.

CTA’s Chicago Card Plus program is linked to a rider’s credit card.  Metra ticket agents, on the other hand, have never accepted credit cards. 

Redden said the smart chip in the card potentially could have many other uses.  Embedded chips in credit cards used by riders in London also can be used to pay for taxi fares, parking fees, auto tolls and even London’s downtown congestion fee. 

Similar cards are already in active tests in New York and Los Angeles. 

Redden said that agreement on the architecture of the card that could lead to its use as a universal Chicago-area fare card could be reached within a year.  Installation of the needed equipment would take longer, and RTA officials said they expected that riders and transit agencies would require transitional period in which both the new credit/debit cards and existing fare cards could be used side-by-side.