AC Transit Begins Upgrading to an Automated Bus Transfer-Issuing System

Press Releases
07/27/2000

(Oakland, CA) AC Transit will begin using a new bus-to-bus transfer ticket this summer that is issued, and verified, by an electronic machine. The switch to the new transfer system begins Sunday (July 30) in the Richmond area and will continue in stages through August until the entire service area is changed over. A new, smaller ticket, which features a magnetic stripe, is replacing the antiquated tear-off paper transfer. On the new ticket’s magnetic stripe, the issuing machine encodes pertinent transfer usage information – the date, time and bus line of issue, plus the expiration time. The machine also prints that data on new ticket’s face. Passengers use the ticket by inserting it into a slot on the issuing machine, which reads the magnetic stripe and signals whether or not the transfer is valid. When an invalid transfer is detected, the machine generates an audible alert. The bus driver can then help the passenger determine why the machine rejected it. Automation changes the process of using bus transfers, but not the policies governing their use. Bus transfers still cost 25 cents and are valid for up to 2½ hours after time of issue, for example, but the new machinery handles the process of determining time of issuance and expiration with automatic precision. The switch-over to electronic transfers begins on the buses that AC Transit’s Richmond Division operates in western Contra Costa County (including mainline service to Oakland and San Francisco). The new transfer machines will be phased into service, at two-week intervals during August, in the system’s Emeryville, East Oakland and Hayward Divisions. Informational handouts, with detailed directions on using the new system, will be available on board the buses as the new machines are phased into service. The systemwide switch-over to the new transfers is scheduled to be completed by early September.