BART hates Translink or do they just hate me pestering them?

SF Appeal was able to talk to BART's Linton Johnson about the progress about using Translink cards on their system, and by the looks of the interview, they are stalling and not being truly honest to the public.

Here's what Johnson said:

• "...we are not going to make a big deal about the fact that anyone can use it. In fact, we aren't really giving out the time and date to anyone about when our soft launch will be. The only people who will know are our preselected EZ Rider users..."

What kind of bullshit response is this? They are not going to release the trial date to the general public? Also, by the way this was stated, Johnson sounds like a jackass.

Johnson acknowledges that once it is turned-on for trial purposes, all Translink cardholders can use it; which really defeats the purpose of WHY have a trial at all. Any person of the general public can get a card because Golden Gate Transit makes it mandatory for anyone who wants the commuter discount (or used to have special tickets), and AC Transit is also going to make it mandatory for Transbay commuters using 10-ride tickets and 31-day passes to be on Translink. You ask for a card, and you get one. End of story.


I'm going to take a page from the SF Appeal playbook: If you are an EZ Rider user and being asked to convert to Translink and they tell you a release date and any more detailed information, please inform SFAppeal (e-mail address near bottom of article) and/or post it in the comments section of my blog, and I'll forward it to editor Eve Batey.

The general public is impatient, it's time we get to use our cards on BART.

(Photo is from Flickr user: "k01e" using a Creative Commons license)