Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Gone are the days when a Utah Transit Authority operator waves on a rider whose EcoPass, EdPass or SkiPass has been rejected by the on-board electronic card readers.
The agency on Sunday will begin full enforcement of red lights on its automated fare collection and verification system for its roughly 150,000 pass-holders.
"If you get a red light now, it signals a true deactivation," UTA spokesman Gerry Carpenter said. UTA has worked out the majority of the system's glitches, which sometimes presented a false negative, since it was first installed in January 2009.
"We know that at least 97 percent of all red lights on card readers today are valid red lights," a letter sent to UTA account holders states. "In other words, most of the red lights indicate cards that have expired or have been deactivated."
Carpenter said if a card elicits a red light after Sunday, the operators will refuse service or require a different method of payment for that ride. If the card is mistakenly valid, the cardholder will have to contact UTA customer service to resolve the issue and/or request a refund.
Bus operators will provide information (in the form of an "EFC Trouble Card") directing riders on how to get their cards working again. Officials believe there will still be software issues that they're "aggressively working to resolve," which will make up for the 3 percent of the time the system is expected to be wrong.
The "tap-on tap-off" card readers help UTA keep track of its ridership as well as plan for the future needs within the agency.
"We were the first transit agency in the country to institute the new technology systemwide," Carpenter said, adding that being a guinea pig meant there would inevitably be "bugs to work out in the system."
The system should be working without problems for riders now, but Carpenter said he expects the occasional misread, which can be fixed.
"We want to ensure that everyone has a positive experience with UTA," he said. Up until now, operators have just had a little more latitude when dealing with riders and the relatively new electronic fare collection system.
Email:wleonard@ksl.com
