TriMet fare inspectors have been traveling the yellow line MAX of late, checking fares and handing out tickets. I’m happy to see this. It is the first time in about 12-18 months since I had seen a fare inspector on the train and I ride daily.
While the inspector was walking through checking tickets and passes and inspecting some more than others, he came upon a woman who brought out a credit card. The inspector stated that a credit card isn’t a valid fare. The woman explained that both machines at her stop wouldn’t take her card. Snarkily, the inspector stated, “They take cash.” The exchange went on for a few minutes with the inspector toe-ing the company line that no matter what is up with the machines, the rider is responsible for having a valid fare and tickets can be pre-purchased at Safeway or downtown blah blah blah. He wrote her a ticket – $90 by my last check.
My first reaction to this exchange was to be angry with how the fare inspector handled the situation. I felt he was a little too condescending to this grown woman using language that implied she purposefully was trying to evade the fare. Yet after a few days now, I have a different perspective.
TriMet MAX fare machines have been horrible for years now. They are usually broken or only 50% functional. All the major news outlets have run stories on this subject and chided TriMet for having such a horrible record for the machines. TriMet is doing little to resolve the issue — or at least it doesn’t appear they are. I feel at this point, the regular daily riders of MAX should know that they need to be more prepared for a broken machine. This means they should carry extra unvalidated tickets or cash or change in order to be able to have numerous options should the system be down. What about the tourists, you ask? Well, yes, they sometimes get caught in this mess and that is sad, but tourists and first time riders are a small percentage of the overall ridership on MAX. I believe at this point, many are riding without fares because A) they know they can probably get away with it (no fare inspectors) or B) they believe they can claim broken machine and get off with a warning.
Portland, TriMet isn’t going to fix or replace those machines any time soon, so if you do plan on riding MAX and don’t really want to get into it with a fare inspector or get a $90 ticket, I would highly suggest you carry around extra tickets and cash. It is your responsibility to always have a valid ticket.
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Uhh. People have enough BS to worry about. They shouldn’t have to kowtow to bureaucratic ineptitude in order to get around. You sound like a Hall Monitor.
Great idea to carry extra tickets except that the ticket validating machines also tend to break down or record incorrect times. And guess what, a non-validated ticket still results in the $90 fine.
@J Canseco – Great feedback. Thanks!
@hilsy – I didn’t realize the machine failure extended as much to the validating machines also. I stand a little corrected. I still think many people who are regular riders are assuming they can always use their CC or just use the excuse that the machine is broken instead of being at least somewhat prepared.
If you were speeding, I doubt a cop is going to take an argument of “the speed sign was broken.”
I totally disagree. TriMet needs to have ITS feet held to the fire.
If the agency wants people to pay fares, then it needs to provide reliable ticket-dispensing machines. Period. That’s ITS job. It ain’t rocket science. For example, say what you want about the smart parking meters but I almost always get them to work. I rarely across a vending machine that doesn’t work. From what I hear, the TriMet dispensers rarely work.
Handing out $90 tickets AND a condescending lecture because somebody just may be a scammer is kinda sleazy. Most people are really trying to do the right thing and get to work on time as well.
Yes, I realize some folks around have decided to play the system. But hasn’t TriMet taught them to, just by not doing ITS job?
@talea – I agree fully. TriMet should be held accountable and should get their ass in geer. Yet this doesn’t seem to be a big issue for them, so instead, we as good citizens should maybe take on some responsibility of at least making an attempt to have valid fares.
I personally would rather be prepared than get hung up with a ticket and then have to take the time and energy to fight the ticket.
i wonder if taking a cameraphone picture of the machine malfunctioning would be good proof to the inspector that you did try to pay, but it was broken. another idea is to call in the number of the machine to trimet so they have a record of it and can send someone to fix it.
I drink your lack of valid fairs. I drink them up!
@pritchard – That is indeed a great idea and you can upload them to http://www.trimetdown.com, a website that is tracking that information. In this case, honestly, I don’t think that would have helped this woman. As stated, the inspector was being a bit condescending and I don’t believe any “proof” would have dissuaded him from writing that ticket.
I’ve been in the situation where the machine is busted and won’t accept cash coin or card… It’s their responsibility to have equipment in good working order. I don’t think people should get a free ride, but maybe check to make sure the machine was down before slapping someone with a $90 ticket…
Just because we KNOW they aren’t taking care of their equipment doesn’t mean it’s the public’s fault.
Dieselboi, I do agree about being prepared. And I do carry enough cash at all times to buy a ticket. But where does one buy a TriMet ticket if not from a machine (yes, I realize I can look this up on the net, but I’m not usually carrying a laptop when I need this info)?
I’m not a regular rider — but when I do ride I usually have toddlers in tow. It’s not easy to trundle them around in search of a ticket.
@talea – According to the fare inspector, you can by TriMet tickets at most grocery stores – he stated Safeway.
I understand there are situations where one can’t always be prepared – i.e. kids in two, an emergency trip on TriMet, an unexpected trip – those will happen. My point more is to the regular rider who is on the system numerous times a week.
TriMet is all tangled up in the worst kind of bureaucratic incompetence and arrogance.
The only way to avoid this nonsense is to buy an annual pass, which is only cost-effective to people who ride twice a day, five times a week (or who get a subsidy through their employer).
I have an annual pass now, but I used to depend on the machines to buy 10 tickets at a time. This used to work, more or less, but now when you buy 10 tickets, the machines print them one… ticket… at… a… time (used to print two perforated strips of 5, which was much faster). If you’re lucky enough to find a machine that takes your card (a big if), it takes more than a few minutes to complete this transaction, which makes it highly likely you’ll miss your train, cause others to miss their train, or — god forbid — ride without a valid fare.
Obviously, TriMet was sold a bill of goods when they bought these balky ticket machines. Until they get their shit together, the need to back the hell off on the fare enforcement.
I would agree that a regular rider should be prepared, but TriMet will build their regular ridership by capturing the occasional rider (like me) on how easy it is to use the system. If you gotta hunt for a ticket, it ain’t easy to use.
So in the end, it’s really TriMet’s problem to solve, so I agree with Steve R.’s last paragraph.
@Steve R. – Yeah, I think the machines are built on Windows NT 4 which was the latest and greatest in 1995.
I disagree with lessening of fare inspectors. I think there should be more. It is common knowledge one can ride MAX for weeks if not months without ever seeing a fare inspector, so there isn’t any incentive to try and buy a ticket. It is a vicious circle. If they had more fare inspectors it could raise the amount of people paying which would generate more revenue to maybe fix the machines.
I know pipe dream, but one can hope.
Great discussion. Thank you everyone for all the comments.
@Dieselboi – FYI, passenger fares make up 20.5% of TriMet’s operating budget. Should they collect fares? Yes. Is it cost effective to increase fare enforcement on MAX? Maybe, maybe not.
My guess is that increasing the number fare inspectors is revenue-neutral in the best case (i.e. revenue from fines and increased fare collection just covers the salaries and benefits of the fare inspectors), and would actually be revenue-negative after a certain level.
The single biggest thing TriMet could do to increase fare collections on MAX would be to install new ticket machines. I’d love to know the sordid back story on why we’ve stuck with this horrid technology for so many years.
Like other commenters, I’ve encountered machines that were not taking cash or cards, in addition to frequent out-of-order validation machines. Usually not all at once, but I think it’s absurd that riders should have to carry cash, credit cards, and spare tickets in order to be assured of avoiding a fine. When the ticket machines on buses are broken, the drivers let people on for free. So why doesn’t Trimet follow this policy on MAX? Their current strategy seems aimed at keeping even well-intentioned customers from using the transit system (oh, unless we spring for a monthly or annual pass).
I’d love to know why they continue to manage this so poorly.
Two “words”:
Windows NT
I love me some Windows, but NT? Come on Trimet, you aren’t even trying.
What will fare inspectors do on the WES when ticket machines on that line do not even accept cash? You better believe that TriMet will insist on making sure those machines will be fully functional as much as possible.
I don’t know, when it comes to this sort of situation… I’m a bit on both sides. Oh one hand, I think if you know you’ll be riding public transportation, you should take some steps to make sure you have some tix on hand. There are ticket offices, machines and local businesses (Freddies!) that sell tickets.
But what if you don’t ride very often or you aren’t originally planning on taking public transportation?
I do not, however, enjoy a snarky ticket inspector. I mean [i]really[/i] – do you have to be like that? Seriously?
Well … I usually buy a monthly pass, so it’s not really an issue for me. TriMet saved my tush last summer when I had a 24-mile round-trip commute from Aloha to downtown and gasoline was $4.25 a gallon. I went from filling a 10-gallon tank up every week and two days to once a month.
I like the way the Metro in Washington DC works. You buy a Farecard. When you go into the station, the Farecard records where you entered and opens the turnstile. When you leave, the Farecard is checked. If it’s short money, you have to go back to a Farecard machine and add money. Then the Farecard opens the turnstile and the fare is deducted. Simple, logical, fares are based on distance traveled, etc. Sure, there have been glitches, but it doesn’t depend on cops spot-checking people — *every* ride is automatically billed!
But yes … if fares only cover 20 percent, where is the other 80 coming from?
Ed, of course the Metro works that way because it’s a closed system. You can only get in and out via money-operated turnstiles. Not so with MAX. Absent some serious infrastructure upgrades (not happening), anyone can hop on, so it’s based largely on trust.
I have to wonder if the relatively small percentage that fares comprise of the overall TriMet budget (the rest, as I understand, largely comes from government funding) means that they just don’t have enough incentive to deal with this problem seriously.
I mean, aren’t we mainly seeing more inspectors because of the complaints from several violent incidents months back? Sure, you can tie that to a lack of fare enforcement, but it seems like TriMet is largely reactionary. And people are more upset about perceptions of safety than they are about bureaucratic incompetence. I guess.
According to “Facts About TriMet” (PDF, October 2008), operating revenues come from payroll and other taxes (54.5%), passenger revenue (20.5%), state/federal operating grants (15.3%), and “other sources” (9.7%).
Todd’s right; TriMet doesn’t really care about fare enforcement from a revenue perspective, but they ought to be concerned about it from a public relations perspective. It’s friggin’ embarrassing.
I have noticed that more of the Machines in Hillsboro have been getting updated ticket machines that do not take cash at all and only take cards. There fancy high tech machines. But if they go down the cash taking machine as down the platform.
This really sucks when you want to get home and not wait at a max station for another 15 minuets when your out in BFE Hillsboro. Now I have called in a few down machines and gotten onto a train without a validated ticket. I have only been caught by a fair inspector once and I gave him the machine number and the time I called it in and was only given a warning.
If only there was a way to purchase a ticket on the actual trains themselves. I know you can validate tickets on the street car.
The problem here is that the inspector, in the example given, is shifting responsibility from Trimet to make paying available to the customer. Yes, if the rider had picked up tickets at the store the day before then she would not have gotten a ticket, though the same logic can be applied in that she didn’t need to get tickets at the store, as there are some provided at the stops. If Trimet is going to start saying that the most reliable way to get tickets is to go to Safeway then remove all the machines at every stop, have an inspector on every train, and watch ridership disappear. If they don’t like this option then they can not offer Safeway as an alternative to there broken robots.
Yes I agree that this is a well publicized issue, and that riders should be prepared, but as others have said, it’s a bait-n-switch game handing out fines with broken machines.
Here’s a link to a Mercury blog item that includes a video of two folks checking numerous fare and validating machines in a single day:
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2009/01/12/max_fare_woes_highlighted_in_v
Trimet should have electronic fares based on RFID. Once a person enters it should log boarding station and when the person gets off should deduct based on where that person board. Do away with the old ticket and validation
@Andy that sounds all well and good, but if TriMet can’t keep simple credit card readers working, do you think they’ll be able to keep an entire RFID system up and running? It still doesn’t eliminate the card/cash payment issue, regardless of the technology used.
@Aaron – I understand your concern.But if you look at the ticket box – it has many unreliable components. Most importantly it has to maintain network connection for validating credit card. With the RFID solution, you don’t need anything of that sorts. The user puts credit on their card via web. And the thing that is local just wipes money off the card based on distance traveled. This also reduces the number of people traveling without ticket to almost 0. There are genuinely a few of those too.
i rode the max out to a job interview a few weeks back. two of two machines at my downtown stop were broken, and there was the max. i didn’t want to be late to a frickin’ job interview in this economy, so i hopped on the train, fareless. sure enough, fare inspectors got on a few stops later. i thought about trying to sneak off the train, but i just womanned up and told them the machines were broken. i was very polite and honest, so they let me get away with it, but the experience certainly didn’t make me more eager to sacrifice an extra two hours to public transit on my current commute out that way.
it’s nice to give people a heads-up about the broken machines, but you (and trimet) shouldn’t put the onus of apparently chronically broken machines on riders. a one-time rider will stay that way if she gets (threatened with) an expensive citation because the fare machines were broken when she honestly tried to use them.
@biketard – Thanks for the comment. I would put your experience in with the tourist/first time rider category. My statements above were more for those who ride MAX regularly. Can I ask a question: When you decided to take MAX to this interview, did you have any thought that the machines may be down? Just an inkling of a thought? I assume you are a Portlander and you obviously read blogs. What if that fare inspector had taken you off the train to write the ticket. That would have certainly delayed you. Wouldn’t it have been better to maybe, just maybe, been prepared for a broken machine?
Dieselboi: I think you're missing biketard's point. We should be able to count on the ticket machines working. We shouldn't have to have "advance knowledge" that they often don't. I've ridden trains all over the country and around the world for that matter. I've never before run into the kind of unreliability that the TriMet system has.
If TriMet wants to turn the occasional or first-time rider into a regular, its ticket machines need to be reliable. Period. Itr's really not rocket science. The fact that they don't work reliably and that bloggers like yourself have to warn people to have a backup plan just kind of points out how bush-league the system is.
I agree people need to be prepared — but why should we settle for such a low standard of service?
I am not trying to say TriMet shouldn't be held accountable, yet if it was a job interview and in the back of my mind I knew that sometimes (even in a blue moon) the ticket machines may not work, I honestly would either arrive early to make sure or I would pre-buy a ticket. TriMet isn't off the hook, but since they don't seem to be fixing the situation any time soon, I would rather be prepared than have to deal with delay or a ticket. Just my two cents.
A few nights ago there were 5, countem 5, armed Transit Police checking fares at the Willow Creek transit stop. The young officer I spoke to was courteous and since I had my fare there was no problem, but you have to wonder if an officer went Chasse and decided draw his weapon how many bodies do we need on the Max before the absurdity of this cat and mouse ends. Trimet already has the technology to turn a possible armed intervention into a simple transaction. They have wireless card readers that can process a fare. I have purchased a ticket at Willow Creek from a TriMet rep during one of Willow Creeks all to frequent breakdowns, give them to the fare inspectors. I agree with the earlier post – either fixem or get the machines off the platforms. They need to quit trying to social engineer by clubbing folks riding the trains with $250.00 fines. I love TriMet, it’s my preferred method of transit, but this on-going fare tug of war has got to stop.
Last I saw, the digital machines that are not the super new ones ran Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS; at least, I used to see Windows error messages quite often.
They should run Linux or some embedded OS for reliability.
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