Bus drivers say Metro's new smart card isn't so smart

(Photo by Jim Gupta-Carlson)

It’s supposed to make “public transportation fast, easy and seamless” – one fare card, a smart card nicknamed ORCA, that can be used for the ferries, Sound Transit, Metro or several other transit agencies.

But bus drivers predict they’ll cause delays and problems collecting fares.

And maybe even accidents.

The problem, say bus drivers such as Brian Sherlock and Joshua Laff, both leaders with the union that represents the drivers, is that the system is too cumbersome to use.

Take a bus that goes from Aurora Village to downtown, Laff says. The route crosses two zones, and the ride has a higher fare than a single-zone trip. The smart card reader is set to charge riders for a two-zone trip, says Laff, a senior shop steward in Metro’s norh base.

But if riders are taking a short trip, they’re charged for only one zone.

Right now, the system is simple. Passengers taking a short trip pay the smaller fare when they get on, and bus drivers try to notice if they go farther.

But under the new system, the bus driver has to manually reset the smart card reader to deduct the correct amount from the prepaid card.

Laff says either of a couple of things will happen.

Even if the passenger is savvy enough to ask to be charged the $2 peak fare for one zone trip instead of the $2.50 for a two-zone one, Laff says there could be delays while the reader is switched, while the line of rush-hour passengers trying to get on has to wait.

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Or more likely, he says, the passenger won’t know to ask. The person will notice he or she is being charged more and stop to argue.

While everybody waits, he says, the driver will have to cancel the previous transaction, reset the reader and run the card again.

“It’s going to cause delays,” agreed Sherlock, a member of the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union, Local 587’s executive board.

Or, Laff said, passengers won’t notice the reader is taking more out of their prepaid card and they’ll overpay.

Eventually, Laff wrote in a recent edition of the union’s newsletter, “Passengers and drivers are not going to put up with the problems caused by setting the fare default for ‘two-zone.’ To avoid those problems and minimize complaints, drivers will override the default fare during peak service, setting it to ‘one-zone’ at all times.”

When that happens, he wrote, management “could be forced to accept ORCA is not doing what they hoped.” But he doubts the system will be scrapped. “Not only could that be too politically embarrassing to allow; I don’t think they’ll give up so easily,” he wrote. Instead, he wrote that management will try to “force drivers, probably through threat of discipline, into setting the fare default properly.”

But then, the underlying problem of people not being charged the correct fare will remain, he wrote. “The public will not be happy. They’ll blame the drivers,” he said, leading to more complaints against drivers.

(Photo by Jim Gupta-Carlson)

To Sherlock, the “God-forsaken system” just adds another thing for drivers to worry about while they’re trying to drive safely. Now, drivers have to notice when people need the wheelchair lift, that the seats are secured, make sure people who’ve gotten on are safely on board before pulling out, check for pedestrians easily hidden behind obstacles. Now they have to fiddle with new machine to make sure they’re charging the right amount. While they’re driving, they have to look out for hazards. Time schedules are printed on pieces of paper, which drivers have to keep consulting to make sure they’re not early. Now they have to remember to change the fare the readers charge as they pass from one zone to another.

Though the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union has not taken an official position and president Lance Norton did not return phone calls, Sherlock and Laff said the concerns are widespread among Metro’s drivers.

Metro spokeswoman Rochelle Ogershok said the agency hasn’t noticed delays associated with the new system since the smart cards went on sale April 20. But, she said: “It is possible we may experience some temporary sporadic delays in the coming weeks as more customers switch to the ORCA card. We anticipate these problems will likely be short term and mainly involve suburban trips taken during peak periods as drivers and customers become more familiar with the cards.”

She said, “It is  true  there will be more interaction with drivers. That means operators occasionally need to reset readers to reflect the correct fare based on number of zones traveled or transactions voided when an incorrect fare has been registered.

“So, given the flexibility of this system, we anticipate there will be a learning curve for both operators and customers until everyone becomes accustomed to using the new card,” she said.

However, Ogershok said a second phase should take care of the problem. Metro is adding GPS technology to automatically reset how much the reader collects as it moves from one zone to another. Installation is supposed to begin next year and be finished in 2011.

Sherlock thinks the whole thing should be scrapped, but it won’t. But he said it took years to get all the agencies involved. “There’s an inertia among all the agencies,” he said.

(Photo by Jim Gupta-Carlson)