"Operation Fare is Fair"

[octr202]

It's been a while since I've bought/used an mTicket, do they display a QR code in addition to the color block? Perhaps the gates could have scanners to scan a QR code displayed on the phone?

[deathtopumpkins]

It's been a while since I've bought/used an mTicket, do they display a QR code in addition to the color block? Perhaps the gates could have scanners to scan a QR code displayed on the phone?

Yes they do, meaning airport-style readers would work.

[jamesinclair]

It's been a while since I've bought/used an mTicket, do they display a QR code in addition to the color block? Perhaps the gates could have scanners to scan a QR code displayed on the phone?

Yes they do, meaning airport-style readers would work.

NJ Transit fare gates were modified so the ticket slot was eliminated and they added a QR reader. That allows both phones to use the gates and also paper tickets with a QR code (vs having it go through the machine).

Here are the gates, you see where the ticket slot was. Now that is covered by a reader that looks like the checkout counter at the supermarket...ie, a glass panel

http://subwaynut.com/njt/newark_airport ... port17.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You can see the added glass reading areas here

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8582/1652 ... 546f_b.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Once that system was finalized the old ticket slots were covered up. I assume like at MBTA they kept breaking.

Edit: Heres the current version

http://subwaynut.com/njt/secaucus/secaucus172.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Disney Guy]

Once new passengers have boarded the commuter rail car and mingled with other passengers already there, it is impossible to identify them to ask them individually for their fares without asking many others who have already paid and consuming time doing the latter.

Even the proposed new fare collection system with validators at the back doors of buses and streetcars (and commuter trains?) needs a qualified person at each validator machine to ensure that the fares are registered.

Traffic signal priority for streetcars cannot work unless the operators are able and willing to get the car moving quickly when the signal gives the go-ahead, which will in many instances require not attending to fare collection.

[jamesinclair]

Once new passengers have boarded the commuter rail car and mingled with other passengers already there, it is impossible to identify them to ask them individually for their fares without asking many others who have already paid and consuming time doing the latter.

Even the proposed new fare collection system with validators at the back doors of buses and streetcars (and commuter trains?) needs a qualified person at each validator machine to ensure that the fares are registered.

Traffic signal priority for streetcars cannot work unless the operators are able and willing to get the car moving quickly when the signal gives the go-ahead, which will in many instances require not attending to fare collection.

I thought you were serious until the last one. Good parody of MBTA management.

[The EGE]

The faregates are NOT being proposed by MBTA management - it is a 100% Keolis idea. The MBTA actually seems to be rather in the dark about what is going on. That means Amtrak certainly does not; while they don't own the stations, they control dispatching on the Corridor, and Keolis had better play nice.

[Disney Guy]

I thought you were serious until the last one (RE transit trafffic signal preemption]. Good parody of MBTA management.

You are waiting at a red light, say, to get across Commonwealth Ave. A streetcar loads at the platform just before the intersection. The signal system decides to put in (or the motorman reached out and (fiendishly?) pushed a button a little too soon to obtain) an extra time window for the streetcar before giving you the green. Then the motorman wrestles with the farebox before a passenger for several seconds and does not use that time window, or worse, just misses the time window and proceeds anyway, holding you up even longer.

As a point of information, transit preemption works better with stops just after intersections (farside stops). A system can better predict the behavior of the streetcar in motion compared with predicting when a stopped streetcar will start up.

[dbperry]

Lots of push-out about the Fare is Fair event tonight at South Station. Posted on social media and seems to be more heavily promoted than usual Fare is Fair events.

fareisfair.jpg (137.29 KiB) Viewed 4117 times

"A Fare is Fair event will be held tonight at South Station. We are piloting new signage and queuing to make the process easier for passengers. Please have tickets purchased and ready prior to boarding!"

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMBTACo ... 11/?type=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.universalhub.com/2016/keolis ... kets-south" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[emannths]

Lots of push-out about the Fare is Fair event tonight at South Station. Posted on social media and seems to be more heavily promoted than usual Fare is Fair events.

fareisfair.jpg

"A Fare is Fair event will be held tonight at South Station. We are piloting new signage and queuing to make the process easier for passengers. Please have tickets purchased and ready prior to boarding!"

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMBTACo ... 11/?type=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.universalhub.com/2016/keolis ... kets-south" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Classic Boston signage. What does "HAVE Tickets Already" mean? Why is "have" in all caps? Presumably it's to tell people that don't HAVE tickets already to go somewhere else, but where?

[emannths]

I don't see it posted elsewhere, but Keolis released some stats from an October 2015 Fare is Fair operation: http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About ... Report.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (p26)

Example of South Station event on October 27th
5108 passengers were fare inspected ( Stoughton, Providence, Franklin, Worcester and
Greenbush lines)
816 passengers were requested to activate their mTicket
41 had to buy a paper ticket prior to boarding
For the 2nd half of year 2015, revenues are up 3% over last year

Some other results from the event were:
Received a couple of expired tickets (required to purchase new tickets)
Passengers complained and did not want to show their tickets / passes but were invited
to buy one
5 Passengers with multiple punches on their 10 Ride tickets
Appreciation of monthly pass holders for enhanced fare collection

In other words, about 1% of passengers did not possess a valid ticket when they reached the platform. Sounds super-effective.

[octr202]

It's effective at one and only one thing: Demonstrating that the T and Keolis are "doing something about it" and are "serious about it." Sadly, this whole thing's gone beyond the point where numbers and statistics matter, the public narrative is ahead of us.

[jamesinclair]

It's effective at one and only one thing: Demonstrating that the T and Keolis are "doing something about it" and are "serious about it." Sadly, this whole thing's gone beyond the point where numbers and statistics matter, the public narrative is ahead of us.

But who is this demonstration for?

Not the people who actually ride the train. They know that if a fare is not collected it is because the train is too crowded. This doesnt solve it.

It is a demonstration for those who have never set foot on a train and never will.

Idiotic.

[octr202]

It's a demonstration to try (in futility, most likely) to answer the critics who constantly slam the T for being wasteful with money.

It's both futile from a collections standpoint, and a political standpoint, as many of those critics are so mad at the MBTA they're unlikely to ever end their criticisms.

[saulblum]

https://twitter.com/saulblum/status/728344834516324353" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Watch as halfway through checking (hassling?) passengers boarding the 5:55 Needham train, at 5:52, the Keolis crew decided to fold up their shop for the evening as many passengers continued to board. I guess it was more important to be finished exactly by 6 than to check all the passengers on just one of the two trains the crew checked during the half hour I was at South Station. Those banners and stanchions must be weighted with lead, because why else would the crew not move them to other platforms to catch more passengers during the evening rush?

Also note the three transit cops who were there the whole time shooting the breeze.

[nomis]

And if they stayed there until 5:55, you would complain that they made people miss their trains and trains were delayed because of "Fair is Fair".