Big Clipper Updates - Lots Happening in the Months Ahead

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Operations Committee is meeting this Friday at 9AM and much of their agenda is covering upcoming changes in the Clipper program.

It's my understanding the Clipper management board, manned by directors of the major transit agencies, has been not had any meetings after the conversion from TransLink to Clipper. Basically, the Operations Committee and a couple of other committees are de facto Clipper boards.

Here's some of the new info about the Clipper program:

• For those of you who wants the BART high value discount tickets, but don't want to use the autoload program, you are in luck, BART is asking the MTC for it. There is no set deadline, but once implemented, you can purchase it as easily as buying your monthly passes and adding e-cash at vendors, machines, online, and by phone.
• Cubic's customer service for Clipper "did not meet four of the 10 cardholder support performance requirements." They are trying to remedy the issues by increasing staffing and "other initiatives." The agenda document did not provide any helpful info into how the customer service portion is not meeting their goals.
• We've been waiting for some in-person customer service centers and I'm happy to announce some great updates: There will be two in-person centers in San Francisco and one in Oakland. They claim to they "are about to commence work..."
• By the end of the year, AC Transit 31-day passes and BART EZ Rider cards will be phased out.
• Samtrans is expected to be ready to accept Clipper cards on December 15th.
• VTA is expected to be ready to accept Clipper cards in February 2011.
• Conversion of BART paper media (green and red discount tickets, and high value discount) should be completed by May 1, 2011.
• Caltrain is planning to convert their 8-ride and monthly passes by January 31, 2011.
• Muni is planning to convert their passports on June 30, 2011, and transfers by September 30, 2011. I don't really know how Muni is going to sort-out the conversion of all paper transfers to Clipper.
  

Cool fact: Did you know SFMTA/Muni sells 40,000 "A" passes every month? With less than 30 days until the mandatory switch from paper passes to Clipper cards, it's going to be a massive undertaking for a smooth transition. It's a big benefit for Muni because they will save thousands of dollars by not printing all those passes. I'll miss all those colorful passes throughout my life, but it's time to move into the future.