Orange County Transportation Authority Fare Integration Project A Regional Approach APTA Fare Collection Workshop and TransITech Conference March 2012
Agenda Review our Regional Efforts Describe the Southern Cal Region and OCTA Discuss OCTA s Fare Payment Evolution and Current Fare Collection System Overview of Project Goals Review Fare Integration Study Recommendations Discuss Benefits to OCTA of an Open Payment System Share Lessons Learned Implementation Timeline Next Steps 2
Regional Efforts Conducted a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Review, sponsored by the US DOT in March 2011 Hosted a Southern California Super Users Group discussion of Fare Collection Systems and Fare Policy in partnership with SCRRA and USDOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Jul 2011 Engaged USDOT Volpe National Transportation Center to assist in the Regional Fare Collection System Project in Dec 2011 Hosted a Regional Fare Collection Vendor Expo in Feb 2012 Visits and meetings with many of our neighboring agencies 3
Agenda 4
The Southern California Region A map of the Southern Cal Region to show why a Regional approach to fare collection makes sense (County boundaries with Metrolink system overlay) 5
The Southern California Region - Facts Over 20 Transit/Transportation Agencies (From Santa Barbara to San Diego), including Amtrak Population in the region of about 21.4 million Transit ridership in the region of about 3/4 billion annually 6
Interagency Transfer Agreements Agencies Outside of Orange County North County Transit District Riverside Transit Agency Omnitrans (San Bernardino) Foothill Transit Norwalk Transit Los Angeles Metro Long Beach Transit SCRRA (Metrolink commuter rail) Within Orange County Laguna Beach Anaheim Transportation Network City of Irvine 7
OCTA Facts Serves Orange County, California and neighboring cities Service area of about 480 sq miles Population of about 3 million Fixed Route service consisting of 1.6 million annual revenue hours and 19 million annual revenue miles Annual ridership of 51.3 million on Fixed route and 1.3 million on Access paratransit service Fleet size of 540 vehicles for fixed route and 250 vehicles for Access service 8
OCTA Fare Payment Evolution Cash Coins and Bills 9
OCTA s Current Fare Collection System Over 800 Units GFI Odyssey System Acquired and installed in 2001 and has another 8 years of useful life Accepts Cash and Magnetics Bill and coin validator The Operator Control Unit (OCU) allows Operator to control farebox Interface with the AMDT for login and alarms Reached maximum available fare categories (keys and TTPs) 10
Project Goals OCTA Integrate fare collection system with other county projects (M2 Go Local and MSEP) Reduce dwell time at bus stops to speed up travel times Reduce the amount of cash collected on-board the bus to improve travel times Ease of transferring from one bus to another Region Lead the development of strategy for a seamless regional fare collection system and fare policies Implement and open payment system that will integrate with other agencies in the region Encourage seamless regional travel with common payment methods and common fare policies Allow agencies to maintain their individual fare policies Offer new payment options Ease of transferring from one agency to another 11
Study Recommendations Implement a Smart Card system o Retain current farebox o Retain current magnetic cards o Add a stand beside card reader Smart Card reader capable of reading/processing o LA Metro TAP cards o SD Compass Cards o Contactless credit/debit cards and cell phones Integrate fare system with other on-board systems (radio, CAD/AVL, APC, AVA, destination signs) Consider low to medium cost options with flexibility for expansion 12
Benefits to OCTA of an Open Payment No need to replace the farebox Adding a stand-beside reader allows Open Payments Easy and convenient to use by customers Regional payment coordination to make transit more seamless and increase transit usage May reduce cost of processing fare revenue collected Smart cards can be processed more efficiently and potentially reduce complaints and customer servicerelated costs Reduce dwell time and improve speed up travel times 13
Lessons Learned Peer agencies expressed a strong interest in account based, open payment systems No open account based systems in operation in the US Several cities in the US have awarded contracts, none have been deployed: SEPTA (Pennsylvania), CTA (Chicago), WMATA (Washington, D.C.), and SACOG (Sacramento) Financial rules with Banking Industry - No firm figures on bank charges Develop a solid transition New technology, new fare structure, new payment cut-over plan, marketing, agency/public buy-in Authorizing a transaction account vs. non-account, speed of transaction real-time, near real-time, overnight 14
Implementation Timeline - A Visual Representation 15
Next Steps Discuss with the Board of Directors the Open Payment option Go to the Board of Directors for approval to develop system specifications Finalize system specification package Facilitate regional fare integration discussions Procure and implement the new system 16
Questions? Thank You! Jorge Duran Project Manager, Transit Orange County Transportation Authority 714-560-5765 jduran@octa.net 17