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Posted: Sunday, 16 August 2009 8:30PM
CTA taking first step toward replacing fare card
Bob Roberts Reporting
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CHICAGO (WBBM) -- The CTA is about to take the first step toward replacing today's fare cards with the ability to ride the 'L' or a bus by simply using a credit card.
Later this month, it will take that step, seeking proposals for a study that will determine possible procedures, management and cost of the program. Once it has that study in hand, CTA intends to seek bids to implement the change.
Chair Carole Brown said she hopes that added convenience will mean more riders and lower costs.
"It's quicker boarding," she said. "We think that we will be able to increase ridership because it's an ease of ridership. they don't have to find the (farecard). It takes us out of the fare media business, which we think will save money."
When it's done, Chicago-area transit agencies will be vendors the same as any local store that accepts credit cards. Brown said she anticipates that the processing fees will be far less than the cost of maintaining the existing CTA fare collection system.
CTA also hopes to induce the bank or credit card processor that partners with the CTA to buy the needed fare-collection equipment -- an infrastructure upgrade that the CTA values in the tens of millions of dollars.
CTA's current fare-collection equipment dates from the 1990s and is nearing the end of its anticipated lifespan.
Pace and Metra are already on board, and have agreed to adopt whatever system CTA selects, with implementation in mid-2012, making the credit card a de facto "universal fare card," a long-sought regional transit goal.
Salt Lake City already has such a system, and tests are being conducted in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
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