Bus fare is becoming a thing of the past, riders are encouraged to use the compass card
but we hear the compass card has a ways to go.
>>> Paul, CEO of the Metro transit system is going to take the trolley and he's loading
his fare on to a compass card.
>>> You've got a blank card here and we're going to put a day pass on it.
>>> He holds the card over an electronic eye on a ticket vending machine and the fare is
downloaded.
The compass card is a "smart card" and it's been in use for several years but now the
MTS is making it more difficult not to use it.
A day pass on the bus costs you $2 more if you don't use the card.
Some riders all it a surcharge.
The point is to bring us into the 21st century.
>>> Ultimately we hope it's going to be easier for the customer and provide them more options.
>>> And get more people out of their cars to use transit.
They hope it will save printing costs and make it harder to cheat the system.
>>> We had a lot of fraud, day passes were being reprinted and resold.
>>> Lots of folks use compass cards and it's getting good reviews.
>>> Right now it's cheaper to buy a compass card than it is to put gas in the car and
go back and forth all the time.
>>> But San Diegans are stuffing dollar bills into the system as they avail themselves for
the card.
For occasional users, it's still an issue.
>>> I thought it would be great not to have to pay for bus ride you don't need, I could
give it to my kids to take the bus home from school, see, I thought a compass card was
like a Starbucks card, put $20 on it and every time you want a cup of coffee they swipe it
at the cash register and it deducts the cost of one cup you use it until it's used up.
Turns out you couldn't use the compass card like that.
But it does not do, at least not yet, store value that can be used anytime you want.
Not all smart cards are the staple and in other places stored value is old news.
>>> This is London's smart card freight collection system and it's a card come memorandum more
rating the royal we hadding in 2011.
>>> Weapon don't know if the royal family use the Oyster card but their subjects do.
The system is designed and maintained by San Diego based Cubic corporation, this company
runs transit systems all around the world, New York, Australia and San Diego.
What about the Metro card, are you kidding?
>> I can get a new card or trade it in.
If I have a bunch that I'm not sure how much money is on them, I can trade them in and
get it all on one card.
>>> Cubic's representative showed me around and newsome says electronic fare systems can
solve a lot of problems.
>>> A lot of it is speed, getting people in and through quick and safely.
>>> Given the thing that smart cards do in other customers' cities which will the compass
card get on the bus?
Paul says the card will offer stored value starting later this year in San Diego.
He says they haven't done it yet because they want more information about how customers
want to use it.
Back at Cubic where they test smart card repetitiveness, I asked newsome if they are state of the art.
>>> It probably is state of the art, that is what most systems have today.
There is a new wave just starting now and that's taking those types of cards and putting
them into phones.
>>> Many systems are experimenting with Smart Phone appses that do the same thing, and credit
cards with computer chips can be programmed to deduct fares at the transit system, someday
technology will leave the smart card behind at the station, Tom Fudge, KPBS news.