One way to appreciate the extent to which Sound Transit is a pretty clean agency is to understand the sheer volume of documents they put on the web for public consumption. Given the local media’s inclination to seize on any piece of news and spin it negatively, the fact that most of it passes without any real comment is a good indicator.
The latest omnibus document on their website is the agency progress report, which goes into gory detail about virtually every project ST has its fingers in. If the Citizen Oversight Panel report wasn’t geeky enough for you, this is the one to read.
There aren’t a ton of surprises: LINK is still on time. There are still 8 days of “float” built into Airport Link’s 31 December start date, so the irrationally optimistic can hope that they’re able to support holiday travelers.
Apparently, ORCA was scheduled to “go live” on March 1 and have “full acceptance” on October 1, but given the late hour that appears likely to slip.
If you like project management or know anything about civil engineering, it might be worth a read.
I’m sure this has been covered, but how -exactly- does Orca work?
Oftentimes, a transit ride for me starts with the PT 501 heading to Tacoma, usually to transfer to another PT bus, and usually doesn’t finish until I have transferred at least one more time. Other times, it is to catch a 59x to Seattle, and even in extreme cases I catch all thee agencies to get where I am going.
Questions:
Once I pass my ORCA card past the reader, how does it know that I got off?
If I do ride multiple agencies, i.e. a 501- 594 ride, will I be deducted $1.75 plus $3.00 to get to Seattle?
If I ride Sounder to Seattle, would it be $1.75 plus $4.75? Or would it be as it is now, $1.75 plus the transfer upgrade of $3.00?
How would a transfer within one agency work? Would I be deducted $1.75 for every PT bus I board in one trip?
Would we still need to use paper transfers?
As it stands now, I do not use transit enough to warrant the use of a Puget Pass. Would it be worth it to forgo the use of ORCA until I use transit enough to where I would purchase a Puget Pass?
As a cash balance, it will know that you tagged on the first bus for a $1.75 fare. If you board the second bus within a certain period of time (two hours I believe) it will recognize you already paid $1.75. So for a trip to Seattle, it will just charge an additional $1.25. With ORCA, you will get the full fare for that first bus instead of just being credited with a one-zone fare on ST Express. It should be a better deal for you. Your third bus should be at no charge since you paid a $3.00 fare already as long as you trasnfer within the appropriate time from the second bus.
When ORCA is introduced, inter-system transfers will be phased out at some point. This is not necessarily a point I agree with, but distribution of the ORCA card may make eliminating transfers difficult at the initial roll-out.
How will ORCA users know how much they are spending on transit each month? Will they get a detailed bill at the end of the month showing all transactions to the ‘epurse’? (hopefully not multi page ‘telephone style’ bills) Or, will that level of detail be made available on-line for both users and managers of Puget/Flex/U-pass programs to compare monthly transit costs? Or, do we just keep adding to the epurse, and hope were not getting screwed to bad?
I can’t say anything about ORCA, but the way it works in Boston with the CharlieCard is that you add money at vending machines or bus/train fareboxes. Then, when you use the card, it says “1.70 paid, 13.30 remaining” or similar. Likewise, the Metrocard readers in NYC, on both the subway and bus, tell you how much money you have left on your Metrocard (or “e-purse”, if you want to call it that).