County Lines Up Smartcard as Its New Transit Pass

Declaring their old transit pass a failure, transportation officials are set to issue a new generation Smartcard that will allow passengers to transfer seamlessly among the county’s six bus systems as well as the Metrolink commuter train.

The Ventura County Transportation Commission is scheduled to award a $1.7-million contract to Motorola / Podata today to replace the old card, which was so unreliable that it was discontinued three months ago out of fear it would be useless when the new millennium rolled over.

The new pass, the first of its kind in Southern California, is based on a concept that has become popular in Europe in recent years. Instead of carrying pockets full of change and bus and train passes of every sort, users of a Smartcard will be able to hop on a bus, transfer, then jump on the train for Los Angeles--all using one card.

The new card should be available in about a year.

To those familiar with the 5-year-old transit card, the Smartcard will look similar. But it will provide transit officials with more information on such things as ridership numbers, location of traffic delays and the time buses spend at stops.

“A Smartcard is literally a credit card-sized pass but it has a computer chip and antennae, and it exchanges data with a bus automatically,” said Steve De George, a transportation planner with the Transportation Commission. “It allows travel throughout the county and all the money is reconciled, so it knows automatically if you paid for a transfer from SCAT to a Camarillo bus.”

The old card, which was started in 1994, used outdated technology and did not perform to the standards set by the commission, according to De George.

“It was time to upgrade and the feeling was that it was better to phase it out rather than have it limp along because it didn’t function up to what we had hoped,” he said.

He said the county is getting a deal on the new card because it is one of the first to jump aboard the Smartcard wave that has already swept most of Europe.

“I’m really excited about this project because Motorola is the largest and most renowned vendor for Smartcard services, and they’re anxious to tap into the L. A. market. We are their gateway to that market,” De George said.

“They have a lot invested in making this work, and this is our best opportunity to get high quality for the best price.”

Motorola recently signed a contract to install the Smartcard in San Francisco, De George said. And the company has been running a similar system in Hong Kong that covers everything from buses to taxis to ferries. The Hong Kong cards can also be used to buy a cup of coffee.

In Ventura County, De George said the focus wouldn’t be on the coffee, but on creating an integrated system to keep track of the various bus systems. The longer-term goal includes adding Metrolink riders.

Users will benefit, but so will city and county officials.

“Typically, we hired people to count riders, which cost us about $500,000 each time, and we won’t have to do that any more,” De George said.

The card will keep track of where a bus stops if hailed by a rider, how long it takes to cover its route and the number of people who pass through the door.

“For the consumer, the only real difference is the amount of time it takes to get on a bus because our transaction will only take hundredths of a second,” De George said.

The reduction in time will come because the card is passed near a sensor instead of inserted into a machine, he said.

Passengers will still be able to use coins, but there will be a small financial incentive, like a free trip, to use the Smartcard, De George said.