FEBRUARY 2018 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | 27
HE HOP FASTPASS IS A REGIONal
fare program that launched in
July, 2017, and is used by C-TRAN,
TriMet and the Portland Streetcar,
allowing riders to seamlessly travel
between systems with the same
pre-loaded transit card.
C-TRAN was involved throughout
the planning process, but played a
secondary role in the project’s overall
direction and schedule. TriMet was the
lead agency on the project, and took on
the lion’s share of the $36 million project
cost, and virtually all of the liability.
Part of C-TRAN’s role was to stay
on top of the process and make sure
our needs — and our riders’ — were
addressed. Implementing a project of
this scope involves countless details.
For C-TRAN, it also means making
sure details of particular interest to us
aren’t overlooked.
In the lead-up to the offi cial launch,
one challenge was communication to
our customers. C-TRAN has a very
diff erent fare structure than TriMet
and as a result, C-TRAN made extra
eff orts to adapt and create our own
materials to make sure our riders’
questions were answered. Th is was
particularly important on the question
of monthly capping, with many
customers wondering how caps would
apply to riders who use multiple fare
types in a given month.
Implementation created challenges
of its own. Network issues affecting
the system, while rare, can’t
always be addressed by C-TRAN.
We play a support role, but remain
largely dependent on TriMet or a third
party. TriMet also manages the Hop
system’s back end, though C-TRAN
does have limited access for certain
data and reports.
C-TRAN’s involvement in the project
has delivered a tremendous benefi t.
We’re now a part of a regional electronic
fare system that has modernized our
fare collection in a way that C-TRAN
would not have been able to achieve
on its own. And we received this longterm
gain with relatively minimal fi -
nancial investment from C-TRAN.
Any technology project requires
a certain degree of flexibility, and all
three agencies showed it throughout
the project. TriMet’s project manager
worked to remove barriers for the
project to move forward. He and all
the project partners deserve credit
for implementing an extremely
complex system that now benefits
the entire region.
EFORE SETTING ABOUT TO PROcure
and deploy a mobile ticketing and
payment system, it is fi rst necessary to
determine why you really want to do so
and what you anticipate gaining out of
the newly deployed payment capability.
Otherwise, in the parlance of the young
millennials, you just get a hot mess.
Th e way forward in public transportation
will be integrated mobility as a service
(MaaS) solutions in which a mixedmode
journey is seamlessly requested and
billed in a single bundled price to the rider
with settlement to participating providers
in the backend. Th e mobile platform is the
portal to that solution.
Th e most eff ective thing an agency can
do is to prepare a concept of operations
(COO) document, which describes how
the mobile ticketing solution is intended to
work, to be clearly understood by staff in all
departments. It is defi nitely not a technical
specifi cation, but rather a clear narrative
discussion of what the concept is and how
it should work. Th is is a document best
written by in-house staff , not a consultant.
From that point forward the normal
agency procurement processes will inevitably
have to be engaged. Th e COO will serve
to provide the scope description, establish
metrics for performance and identify and
defi ne the key contributors required to prepare
a request for proposal for the design,
deployment and support of the initiative.
Fortunately at this point in time, there are
a number of good mobile ticketing vendors
available and a suffi cient number of agencies
who have already deployed mobile ticketing
solutions and are more than willing
to share their experiences.
DART’s COO is available to other
agency staff upon request by contacting
David Leininger.
Implementing
Mobile Payment
Industry leaders share what you need to know if you’re
looking to implement new payment at your agency.
David
Leininger
Executive Vice
President, Chief
Financial Officer
Dallas Area
Rapid Transit
T
B
Katie Nelson
Project
Manager
C-TRAN
Vancouver, Wash.
Dallas, Texas
Read the complete responses at MassTransitmag.com/12385383
BEST PRACTICES
Katie Nelson
Katien@c-tran.org
360.906.7460
linkedin.com/in/katie-nelsonpmp
36398279
David Leininger
DLeininger@dart.org
214.749.7220
Join Katie Nelson, David
Leininger and City of Porterville
Transit Manager Richard Tree
Thursday, February 15 at 2:00
CST for a virtual roundtable.
MassTransitmag.com/webinars
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