AC Transit Board Approves Discontinuation of Local Paper Tickets
News Articles
09/02/2010
Paper Tickets Are Going Away. Clipper Is Now the Way To Pay! October 31 is the last day to buy Local Adult 10-Ride and 31-Day tickets, and Local 10-Ride Youth/Senior/Disabled tickets. December 31 is the last day to use them on the bus.
This fall, AC Transit will change the way some of its passengers pay their bus fare. Local Adult 10-Ride and 31-Day paper (magnetic-strip) tickets will be eliminated. If you’re a passenger who now uses these tickets, you will instead need to use a Clipper all-in-one transit card or pay cash to board the bus. Clipper is the new name for TransLink.
Also, 10-Ride Youth/Senior/Disabled paper tickets will be eliminated. If you use these tickets now, you’ll be able to pay with a Clipper Youth card or with a Clipper-enabled Regional Transit Connection (RTC) card for Senior and Disabled passengers.* Of course, you can also pay with cash, or a monthly sticker on an RTC card.
Here are some things you’ll need to know about the upcoming AC Transit ticket elimination.
Important dates. AC Transit and its retail vendors will stop selling paper tickets on October 31, 2010, and these tickets will not be accepted on the bus after December 31, 2010.
What to do with your paper tickets. We encourage you to use up paper tickets as soon as possible and consider getting a Clipper card before December 31, when we’ll stop accepting these tickets as fare payment. Beginning in early October, you will be able to exchange unused tickets. You will not be able to exchange partially used tickets.
Exchanging tickets for a Clipper card. Starting on October 1, you will be able to exchange unused Adult paper tickets for a free adult Clipper card with the value of your tickets preloaded on the card. You can do this by visiting AC Transit’s downtown Oakland ticket office at 1600 Franklin Street. (Our ticket office hours are Monday – Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. The phone number is 510-891-4706.)
You will also be able to exchange unused tickets by mail – just print out and complete the ticket exchange form (http://www.actransit.org/exchangeform/) and mail it to AC Transit with your unused paper 10-Ride and 31-Day tickets. A free Clipper card with the value of your tickets will be mailed to you within about a week.
You can also exchange unused 10-Ride Youth/Senior/Disabled tickets for $10 worth of single-ride tickets. Download the ticket exchange form, as above, and mail the completed form with your ticket(s) to AC Transit. Your unused paper tickets cannot be exchanged at any retail vendor location. They must be exchanged by AC Transit staff.
Employer-provided transit benefits. If you receive employer-provided transit benefits in the form of 10-Ride or 31-Day tickets, your transit benefits will be transitioned to Clipper. Check with your employer’s transit benefits coordinator.
*If you’d like information by phone about how to get a personalized Clipper-enabled RTC card or Clipper Youth card, call 511, and say “AC Transit.”
About Clipper:
Clipper is the Bay Area’s reloadable card for paying transit fares and is currently accepted on AC Transit, BART, Muni, Caltrain, Golden Gate Transit and Ferry, and Dumbarton Express. A Clipper card keeps track of the value on it and automatically deducts the right fare, including transfers and discounts. Any ticket or pass that you load onto a Clipper card has the same rules and functions as a paper version.
Adding value to a Clipper card. You can easily add cash value or load an AC Transit 31-Day pass (or pass from another agency) onto a Clipper card. You can do this at Clipper retail locations, including any Walgreens store, at transit agency ticket offices, and at Clipper Add Value Machines. If you’d like help the first time you load value on a card, just call 1-877-878-8883 (toll free) and a customer service representative will assist you. Staff at a transit agency ticket office can also help.
You can use cash, or a debit or credit card, when loading value on your card. The only time you must use a credit or debit card is when you decide to add value online at clippercard.com or by phone. You can also set up Autoload online and never have to think about adding value to your card again. Go online for more information about using your Clipper card on AC Transit, or call 1-877-878-8883 (toll free) to talk to a Clipper customer service representative.