I was thinking about the current U-Pass setup and if it could be improved. If you don't know, any currently enrolled undergraduate CT state university student taking at least one class in person (some require full-time) is entitled to a U-Pass that allows unlimited travel on CTtransit local and express buses, CTfastrak, Hartford Line, Shore Line East, Metro-North to Greenwich, and all the smaller public bus systems around the state for $20 per student per semester, no opt-out. Fantastic deal for both sides in my opinion: DOT gets the revenue no matter what along with increased ridership and students get an incredible deal. However, since many students are graduating and enrolling each semester rather than academic year, each U-Pass card is only valid for January 1-July 30 and August 1-December 31. Problem is, due to CT's and especially its university system's car-centric nature, not many students go back to get a new card from the student ID center each semester: about 1,000 students per semester at CCSU. Currently, they are magnetic swipe cards that must be swiped when boarding a CTtransit bus or shown to a CTfastrak or Hartford Line/SLE/Metro-North fare inspector/conductor. Students must get a Riders are automatically counted on the CTtransit buses, but every other mode involves manual documentation, which I believe aside from bikes is the only fare class that must be recorded this way on trains & buses. New York's OMNY system has completed rollout to all NYC transit buses & subways, as well as the Staten Island Railway. Paratransit, LIRR, & Metro-North will be this year into next. I assume the New Haven Line will be included in this. Rather than having a different system for the CT branches, Hartford Line, & SLE, could those services potentially use OMNY as well? I imagine the railroads will just be a QR code like the current MTA eTix and CTrail eTix apps, so it could be used on CTtransit as well as they have QR scanners on the fareboxes . I realize this would be a big undertaking and CT would lose the money they've spent on the Trapeze system, but the biggest plus would be not requiring students to get a new card every semester, thereby increasing usage and having a single fare system for the NYC & CT region. For non-smartphone access, the forthcoming OMNY cards would need to work on the current CTtransit GO CT Card system, or be a static QR code that is just activated or deactivated in the database. The smaller bus systems could use card readers, but a static QR code would work for those.
