VTA accepts Clipper

VTA today formally accepts Clipper for payment.

Some Clipper tips:

E-cash and monthly passes can be loaded onto Clipper cards. With e-cash you pay one way fares. There's no day pass option at this point. If you want to ride light rail or the bus all day you should buy the light rail excursion pass or day pass with cash.

Transfer privileges automatically apply when transferring to VTA from AC Transit, BART, Caltrain, or SamTrans. There's no transfer privileges with Highway 17 Express or MST if you pay with Clipper.

To ride the bus you basically place the card on top of the blue logo on the Clipper reader. The reader is located in front of the bus to the right of the fare box.

To ride light rail you place the card on top of the blue logo on the Clipper reader at the light rail station. Once your card is approved (green light), you can ride light rail for the next 2 hours.

If you transfer between light rail you don't need to "tag" your card again. If you do so you will pay another fare, even if you have paid for light rail less than 2 hours ago.

The Clipper readers at light rail stations are generally located next to the ticket machines. That means that they are located on the platform at street level stops, and located at the station entrances for Hwy 87 stations. Some ticket machines will not have the Clipper reader next to them.

At the downtown San Jose light rail stops, only one Clipper reader is available on each street for each station. The reader is located at the front end of the station (north end on 1st St, south end on 2nd St) between the raised platform and the ticket machine.

What is not clear at this point is whether you must tag (that means if you don't you get a citation) before you board the light rail if your card has a monthly pass. The FAQs on VTA and Clipper sites say that you need to. On the other hand, you don't need to do that on Caltrain. Because of the number and placement of the Clipper readers at the light rail stations, having tag on every time with a monthly pass is a problem. If you ride, say the 82 to the light rail station on 2nd Street and the light rail pulls in, you won't have time to walk to the front of the front car to tag the card and get on.

The Clipper readers for light rail and Caltrain all look the same, which can be confusing at some intermodal stations especially San Jose Diridon. At that station, Clipper for light rail is located on the light rail platforms only. Readers located anywhere else (inside tunnel, inside station building) at that station are for Caltrain only. At Tamien, light rail readers are located next to VTA machines. Caltrain reader is located next to the Caltrain machines.

You need a youth or senior Clipper card to pay for any youth or senior fare. Standard cards are restricted to pay for adult fares only. Getting one of these cards is not convenient, you basically need to bring a proof of eligibility to a VTA office and apply in person, and wait to receive the card in the mail.

If you have a RTC Discount Card, which is necessary to buy a VTA senior/disabled monthly sticker, you already have a senior/disabled Clipper card. You can call Clipper 877-878-8883 to activate the Clipper account and start loading money or pass. The older RTC card with Translink logo also works on Clipper (Translink and Clipper is basically the same, just a change in name).

If you choose to pay online you may need to wait 5 days for you new purchase to be loaded. If you pay at the VTA office or Walgreens your card is loaded immediately. The reason for the delay is that, unlike credit cards, the reader does not immediately link to the network to validate your card. The readers get your payment information only by downloading at the end of each day through a wireless network at the bus yards. Once your card is validated then you're good for subsequent transactions.

Clipper, Caltrain, and VTA

At yesterday's Caltrain JPB meeting, staff announced that Caltrain will stop selling paper 8 ride tickets at the end of this month and paper monthly passes at the end of February. Caltrain delayed the mandatory transition for monthly passes because VTA has yet to accept Clipper but is expected to do sometime next month.

For VTA, only monthly passes and e-cash for one way fares will be offered on Clipper. Day passes and annual passes will not be available for now. The only realistic solution for day passes on Clipper is the implementation of a daily fare cap. Otherwise all other alternatives are inconvenient (either putting cash at the farebox to activate day pass on Clipper, which is a process already implemented on LA's bus system, or use Clipper e-cash to buy a paper day pass).

The current transfer policies with Santa Cruz Metro and MST, which are outside MTC's jurisdiction, present a problem with the mandatory Clipper transition for Caltrain and VTA. On Highway 17 Express, the cost of a day pass is $4.00 with a VTA day pass or a Caltrain monthly pass. Also, riders with a VTA express monthly pass or a Caltrain monthly pass with 3 zones or more can ride MST free. Highway 17 Express and the MST 55 line are partially funded by VTA.

Currently the other agencies cannot read Clipper cards for valid passes and honor the transfer discounts. Until something's changed, a transition to Clipper only tickets would mean a de facto fare increase (and a substantial one) for people who rely on these inter-agency transfers.

Is it feasible to stop the mandatory transition? At this point MTC does not have a plan to transition all bus agencies to Clipper within its jurisdiction. There's no Clipper version of BART Plus ticket (which can be used as a bus pass with a number of local transit agencies, except AC Transit) available, even through BART and Muni fully accept Clipper. On one hand, it is possible that sales of paper passes be continued on a limited basis for those who intend to transfer to H17 or MST. On the other hand, people who bought passes on Clipper but suddenly want to ride H17 or MST would find themselves having to pay more.

Besides H17 and MST, VTA also has transfer policies with AC Transit and SamTrans. Under the existing policies, VTA and AC Transit honor each others monthly passes at shared transfer points (including DB bus for local credit). Between SamTrans and VTA, either passes (also include VTA's day pass) are valid anywhere in Menlo Park and Palo Alto. With Clipper, transfers to VTA will be free within 2 hours after boarding another agency's bus with Clipper (no e-cash deducted).

SamTrans quietly launches Clipper

No fanfare, no web site announcement, no whatever, SamTrans quietly accepts Clipper card for payment by uncovering the Clipper readers, which has been installed on buses for several months.

For now, only e-cash (without discount) and monthly passes are available on Clipper for SamTrans. Occasional SamTrans riders will still need to buy bus tokens from retailers like Safeway in order to receive a 20% discount. Ironically, Muni offers a 10-ride "ticket book" on Clipper, which costs $20 and provides no discounts from cash. AC Transit also had 10-ride paper tickets which provided no discounts. These tickets were eliminated when the agency fully transitioned all passes to Clipper.

For Clipper, SamTrans instituted a policy on line KX that require SF-bound riders who use Clipper to tag the card when boarding and again exiting in SF. Because line KX is a mixed local and express service, riders only pay the express fares if they ride north of SFO. The second tag in SF is basically to charge the card from local (when they board south of SFO) to express fare. It is possible for someone to evade the express fare northbound by exiting quickly (or through the back door) and not tagging the second time. It would be interesting to find out how will that policy be actually executed on the buses.

On Golden Gate Transit and Caltrain, the highest possible fare is deducted on the first tag, so any passenger who ride for a shorter distance has an incentive to tag the second time to get a refund.

Meanwhile, SamTrans will be introducing new fare boxes in the next few months. The new fare boxes will be able to accept and issue magnetic strip cards. One of the features planned is to provide change on a card for riders who feeds larger bills into the fare box. The rider can use the card to pay for fares in the future or possibly redeem the card for cash at the transit office.

Another feature also planned with the introduction of new fare boxes is day pass. Day pass, already available on VTA, Santa Cruz Metro, MST, and countless other agencies, is a convenient way for occasional riders and visitors to pay and use the system. Day pass also reduces transfer penalties.

While SamTrans staff recognizes the benefits of day pass. They have been hesitant on implementing the pass until they first introduce the new fare boxes, which can issue day passes automatically. What they don't want is to follow VTA's footsteps in making and distributing preprinted day passes.

The day pass is planned to cost $6, exactly the same as VTA. However, the pass is expected to be available for local fares only. Riders will need to pay an upgrade for higher fare routes. Staff is planning to introduce the pass by the end of next year, after they roll out new fare boxes and conduct public meetings and "analysis" for something that will obviously benefits riders.

What will also be helpful is to have the day pass be introduced on Clipper as a form of a fare cap. So if someone who has paid $6 on SamTrans rides in a day, all SamTrans rides will be free for the rest of day. Another thing SamTrans could do is to make all e-cash fares $1.60 for Clipper riders.