ORCA “smart card” for transit: Finally close to arrival

News release this afternoon from the King County Council:

Paying your fare to ride the bus, ferry or light rail throughout the Puget Sound region will soon be as simple as swiping a single card, following approval today by the Metropolitan King County Council of a plan for rollout later this spring of the long-awaited ORCA regional fare coordination system.

“This system makes various forms of transit more accessible to all riders,” said Councilmember Jane Hague, sponsor of the ordinance and chair of the Council’s Physical Environment Committee that oversees transportation. “The new ORCA card will help riders have a more seamless and enjoyable transportation experience.”

The One Regional Card for All (ORCA) will be a non-touch smart card used for payment on seven transportation systems: Sound Transit, King County Metro Transit, Community Transit of Snohomish County, Pierce Transit, Everett Transit, Kitsap Transit and Washington State Ferries.

The system is easy and fast. ORCA uses an electronic smart card that automatically calculates any fare due. Passengers will simply “tap” their ORCA Card on target card readers and enjoy their ride. The card will register a valid pass or deduct the appropriate fare from a customer account. Customers can load transportation value or products on their card online or in person at select retail outlets.

The Council today authorized an updated interlocal agreement with the other six transit agencies that clarifies the roles of all the partners for the rollout of ORCA later this spring. Approvals must still come from the Everett City Council and the state of Washington. The regional fare coordination system has been under development since 2003.

Work on the ORCA system is now in final system design, software and Web site development, and testing to implement system updates and changes based on lessons learned in a customer Beta test. Concurrently, work is underway to complete installation of all equipment, develop employee training programs and plan for the rollout of the new ORCA card to customers.

ORCA has its own website, here.

sunshine March 23, 2009 (5:59 pm)

Grrr, another way to track a person by time and place.

And Metro already HAS invested in the GPS technology to stream the location of the dang busses, but isn’t sharing it with riders.

Knowing where my bus was and when/if it would arrive would sure have made for a more “enjoyable transportation experience” this past winter.

MrJT March 23, 2009 (6:22 pm)

Havent these readers been on the busses for at least tow years?

MrJT March 23, 2009 (6:23 pm)

uh, make that “two”

miws March 23, 2009 (6:33 pm)

sunshine, If I recall, from previous info here on WSB, and elsewhere, METRO will be implementing a GPS Tracker system, some time next year, I believe.

MrJT, Yep, the readers have been around awhile! I seem to remember hearing that the now defunct company that ran Thriftway’s “Pay By Touch” system, also had some kind of hand in the ORCA system. So, that may be the, or at least a, reason for the long wait in getting it implemented.

Mike

Gene March 23, 2009 (6:57 pm)

The real-time tracking info is supposedly available at:

http://transit.metrokc.gov/oltools/tracker.html

Good luck with the accuracy, especially in West Seattle though.

Also, from the FAQ:

7) What about employee privacy?
No personal information will be stored on an employee’s Business ORCA Card. However, an employee may elect to register his or her card so that a lost or stolen card can be more easily replaced. The agencies have planned for multiple layers of system security, which include data encryption for all communications systems, the use of Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) for access to customer data and controlled employee access to all data. Additionally, Washington State laws protect a customer’s personal and ‘travel use data’ from public disclosure.

http://transit.metrokc.gov/cs/employer/pdf/ORCA-QA-BusinessAccounts.pdf

Take this all as you will…

homesweethome March 23, 2009 (8:03 pm)

its about time – most other cities have had this for years

mayjune March 23, 2009 (9:14 pm)

I’m excited about the ORCA card for a silly reason: my current flexpass very rarely has a successful swipe through the reader. I almost never get the pleasant little “beep!” that most other cards seem to get.

Here’s hoping for a fully functional card (and readers)!

MrJT March 23, 2009 (9:52 pm)

Sunshine – Try http://www.onebusaway.com It is awesome for tracking where a bus actually is. Has nothing to do with any city/county agencies so it really works.

WSB March 23, 2009 (9:56 pm)

Except beware during weather – that’s based on the technology that involves noting when a bus passes a given point on its usual route – which, in times of bad weather, goes out the window. Or so it was explained repeatedly during Snowpocalypse and its sequels – TR

MrJT March 23, 2009 (10:05 pm)

TR- Good point ! Snow days I can justify the cost of parking downtown…

HomeOnBeachDrive March 23, 2009 (10:38 pm)

Can’t wait for this. It would be SO handy to have one ‘card’ I could swipe for a bus, light rail, street car, Sounder train, water taxi, whatever. It’s just makes getting around a LOT easier if you don’t have to worry about have $0.75 here and a card for one system there, and another $2.50 for another point. I don’t mind paying for transit, but make it easy. :)

Chris M March 24, 2009 (10:49 am)

Indeed, I’m very excited for these… E-Purse means I don’t have to buy a ST-fare card just to cover my butt on the days where I can’t take a purely-Metro trip.

Mr_Grant March 27, 2009 (9:51 am)

Read the last graf of the press release. ORCA sounds like it’s still months away, and it’s already years behind schedule. I really can’t think of any reason we need a transit “smart card” when we could have been just made the existing bus passes regional, and allocate revenue among the agencies according to ridership.

I think they developed ORCA because ST set up an Innovation Fund after 1996, containing $30 million to spend on something. So why not an expensive ‘futuristic’ smart card?

Sorry, comment time is over.