Clipper card upgrade: cheaper transfers plus credit card taps on AC Transit

This story first appeared on KQED.

Clipper, the digital fare fee system accepted by all 20 or so transportation businesses within the Bay Space, is introducing new options this month — designed to save lots of riders cash and modernize the way in which they pay for public transit.

“Subsequent era Clipper” arrives Tuesday, with advantages together with reductions on transfers, the flexibility to pay with a contactless credit score or debit card and rapid availability of funds added to accounts.

However for those who’re already utilizing a Clipper card to journey across the Bay, what do you’ll want to know? Hold studying to be taught how one can benefit from these new options as quickly as potential.

What’s the ‘Subsequent-Technology Clipper’?

Options of those new Clipper playing cards embrace:

Fast availability of extra funds

Regardless of the way you add funds to your Clipper card, these funds shall be out there instantly with the subsequent era Clipper. Beforehand, customers who added cash to their bodily plastic card on-line or by means of the Clipper app typically needed to wait a number of days for the brand new cash to look of their account.

Pay with contactless credit score or debit card

Passengers from the Bay Space might pay with a bank card or debit card with a chip BART since Augusthowever beginning Tuesday, all Bay Space transit businesses that settle for Clipper (AC Transit, Caltrain, Golden Gate Ferry, Golden Gate Transit, VTA, the list goes on…) now additionally accepts credit score or debit playing cards with chip as a fee technique, in addition to Apple Pay and Google Pay on cell.

Free or discounted transfers

Passengers switching from one service to a different will obtain a reduction of as much as $2.85 on their second journey, and on any subsequent rides with a service – so long as that journey is inside two hours of the primary journey. For instance, for those who change from SolTrans to BART, the fare in your BART journey shall be $2.85 lower than you’ll pay with the present model of Clipper.

New household accounts

Customers can handle a number of registered Clipper playing cards by means of one account. Which means that, for instance, a father or mother can add cash to their kid’s Clipper card.

Apply for the youth or senior card on-line

Riders now have the choice to use for these discounted packages on-line, reasonably than simply in particular person or over the cellphone.

If I have already got a Clipper Card, what else ought to I do?

You may proceed to make use of your present Clipper card, however if you wish to entry the brand new options as shortly as potential, you’ll need to manually begin the improve course of in your current card.

That is as a result of it could take eight to 12 weeks for the Metropolitan Transportation Fee to replace customers’ maps, stated John Goodwin, a spokesman for the MTC.

Goodwin stated there are about 5 million Clipper playing cards in circulation, and the committee will do the improve in batches. That implies that with out first taking motion to improve, some current Clipper customers might wait months for the brand new options to take impact.

How will you improve your Clipper card? Goodwin advises Clipper customers to provoke the improve to the subsequent era Clipper by logging in clippercard.com or by calling Clipper’s Buyer Service Heart at 877-878-8883 to start the improve course of.

“If you wish to be in ‘boarding group A’ for the subsequent era Clipper, that is the way in which to do it,” Goodwin advises.

If I have already got a Clipper Card, do I want to make use of Clipper 2.0?

It isn’t necessary to begin your subsequent era Clipper improve early as above.

However whether or not you do this or not, your Clipper will finally be routinely upgraded to the brand new model.

How do I do know if my card has been upgraded to Clipper 2.0?

The simplest solution to test the standing of your Clipper card is to name Clipper customer support at 877-878-8883 and ask in case your card has been upgraded.

And for those who’re informed it is not, you possibly can ask the customer support consultant you converse to to go forward and begin the method. However Goodwin additionally stated there’s one other solution to discover out.

“Whenever you faucet a Clipper card that has been upgraded, the cardboard reader on buses and lightweight rail automobiles, at ferry terminals and on practice platforms will merely present ‘TRAVEL OK’ with out the cardboard steadiness,” Goodwin stated.

A Clipper card that hasn’t been upgraded will nonetheless present an account steadiness, one thing like “BALANCE 19.75,” in response to Goodwin.

The one exception to this would be the new BART faregateswhich do not present card balances in any respect, Goodwin stated.

How a lot do I save with discounted transfers?

You may estimate how a lot cash you may save with discounted transfers from the subsequent era Clipper this independent transit calculator created by Evan Tschuy from the web site Walking with Transit.

For instance, a next-generation Clipper journey utilizing three transit businesses, beginning with AC Transit, then shifting to BART after which Muni, will save riders $5.20 per journey in comparison with the usual Clipper. The calculator estimates that somebody making this journey as a part of their common commute would save $2,600 over a yr with the brand new era Clipper.

“When the system works that method, it feels just like the system is considering the shopper,” stated Adina Levin, govt director of the Bay Space transportation nonprofit Seamless Bay Space, which has advocated for discounted transfers within the next-generation Clipper. “We wish the general public transport system to not simply run trains backwards and forwards, or buses backwards and forwards, however to assist individuals get the place they wish to go.”

Are there any downsides to paying with a credit score or debit card as a substitute of a subsequent era Clipper card?

Sure, in case you are a pupil, disabled particular person or senior who receives a reduction on fares, it’s essential to nonetheless use your Clipper card to obtain that worth discount. Passengers paying by credit score or debit card can pay the total grownup fare.

“We urge these clients to proceed utilizing Clipper playing cards as they’ve prior to now in order that they get the reductions they deserve,” Goodwin stated.

Adina Levin of Seamless Bay Space stated her group plans to proceed advocating for the MTC to make these reductions out there to qualifying riders who additionally wish to pay with a credit score or debit card.

“We wish this comfort to be out there to everybody, and never having it out there to individuals who get reductions shouldn’t be truthful sufficient,” Levin stated.

Individuals who pay with a credit score or debit card will nonetheless get switch reductions, as will customers of the subsequent era Clipper playing cards.

Wait – I assumed the Bay Space trucking firms had been dealing with an enormous finances deficit. Why do they provide reductions on transfers?

It is true what Bay Space transit businesses like BART and Muni are coping with budget deficits This coming finances yr is predicted to extend to greater than $300 million.

Transit officers say providing discounted transfers is predicted to extend ridership and income for transit businesses.

“Our expectation is that transport firms is not going to do this [lose money]however we’ll simply have to attend for the numbers to return in,” Goodwin stated.

Goodwin added that transit officers are treating the discounted transfers as a pilot program that shall be reviewed after 18 to 24 months.

What future upgrades could be coming to Clipper?

The MTC stated different capabilities akin to fee paratransit with Clipper, there are cell group tickets that permit teams of individuals to pay their fares with only one cellphone, and fare low cost promotions from transit firms are all within the works.

Nonetheless, there isn’t any set date but for the launch of those options.