BART dials in to phone-pay system
May 8, 2009
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| Easy pass: The technology BART tested on about 230 passengers last year would allow riders to use their cell phones essentially as a debit card to pay for fares. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Paying for BART may soon be as easy as tapping a cell phone on a station turnstile.
The transit agency is the first in the nation to use technology in which a microchip built into mobile phones can be used like a debit card at fare gates. Passengers can simply run their phone over sensors.
“You’d no longer have to buy a ticket,” said BART Director James Fang, who is pushing companies to include the technology in future phone models.
The system could also phase out TransLink, a universal fare card for more than a dozen Bay Area transit systems, he said.
Fang envisions specialized phones one day becoming electronic wallets for consumers worldwide. They could be used to pay for flights, taxis, a burger at a fast-food joint and other expenses. Similar technology is currently being used to pay for services in Japan, Korea, China and some parts of Europe, said BART spokesman Linton Johnson.
Jack in the Box customers in the U.S. are now able to pay for food with the cellular technology, according to BART.
The technology was tested in a trial last year involving some 230 passengers during a four-month period, BART said.
Implementing the phone technology would cut down on paper-ticket waste, Fang said. Every year, BART uses 32 million paper tickets, each costing 2 cents to produce. The transit agency disposes of 450,000 tickets weekly, he said.
Reducing use of paper tickets would also cut down costs on fare-box maintenance, according to Fang. BART operates roughly 1,000 fare gates and 1,000 ticket machines, and cites jammed tickets as one of the main reasons the machinery breaks down.
If the ticketless ride system were introduced, a trip’s cost would automatically be deducted from the passenger’s account and stored on the microchip. When the account became low in funds, the system could automatically fill it up by charging a credit card.
Within three years, an estimated 300 million phones worldwide will have the microchip, Fang said. Its success on BART will be contingent upon whether phone companies adopt the technology, he said.
“The cell phone is the most common and popular tool that people use today,” Fang said. “When I wake up in the morning, I get my wallet, maybe my keys, but I cannot not have my cell phone.”
Moving on
BART may be able to eliminate paper tickets by allowing riders to use cell phones to pay for fares.
32 million
Paper tickets used on BART annually
$650,000
Amount BART pays for paper tickets annually
230
People who tested cell phones that can be used to pay for BART rides
450,000
Paper tickets BART disposes of weekly
1,000
Approximate fare gates in BART’s system
300 million
Projected number of phones worldwide using new payment technology by 2012
Source: BART
maldax@sfexaminer.com
