Rescue Muni

If you’re wondering why those Translink devices that worked way back in 2001 are now sitting on the bus with a screen saying “Testing In Progress,” today’s news from BART may be of interest. The troubled $130 million project missed yet another deadline to make the system available throughout BART, Muni, and Caltrain by March 31. As a result, BART treasurer Scott Schroeder this week urged the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to abandon ERG, the Australian contractor running the project.

Region-wide availability of TransLink is now scheduled for 2010 - years late and millions of dollars over budget. Meanwhile London is extending the Oyster card to regional rail systems, and many other public transit systems have long since completed activation of their contactless fare card systems. Presumably one or more of these systems would be available off the shelf if Translink gets dumped?

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission has been working on implementing a region-wide electronic farecard, called TransLink, for some years now. The current plan is to expand it to Muni, BART, and Caltrain by the end of 2007 (hence the readers you see on streetcars, and the apparently non-functional metal boxes with TransLink logo you see on many buses). But there are likely to be more delays, according to a report in today’s Chronicle. The Examiner also reports.

(Many other transit systems have used cards like this for years - e.g. Oyster, Octopus, SmarTrip, Suica. However these have generally been slower to be adopted in the US than in Europe and Asia.)