Clipper card
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| Location | San Francisco Bay Area |
|---|---|
| Launched | 2010 |
| Technology | |
| Operator | Cubic Transportation Systems |
| Manager | Metropolitan Transportation Commission |
| Currency | USD ($300 maximum load) |
| Stored-value | Clipper Cash |
| Credit expiry | None |
| Auto recharge | Autoload |
| Validity |
|
| Retailed | |
| Variants |
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| Website | Clippercard.com |
The Clipper card is a reloadable contactless smart card used for electronic transit fare payment in the San Francisco Bay Area. First introduced as TransLink in 2002 by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) as a pilot program, it was rebranded in its current form on 16 June 2010.
In 1993, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and County Connection launched a pilot program named Translink (not to be confused with ) that allowed the use of a single fare card between the two systems. The card, which used magnetic stripe technology, was envisioned to one day include all Bay Area transit agencies. However, due to technical problems, the program was abandoned two years later.
Translink had a projected capital cost of $4 million when undertaken in 1993. In its current form, first as TransLink and later as Clipper, implementation was expected to cost $30 million. Cost estimates have since increased; the projected 25-year capital and operations costs are now estimated at $338 million.
Scheduled implementation delays have added up to more than a decade. In 1998, MTC envisioned full availability of TransLink by 2001. However, it was fully operational for only five transit agencies by 2009. As of December 2011, Clipper was only accepted by eight of the Bay Area's transit agencies.
Clipper was developed by Australian-based ERG Group and Motorola under the ERG-Motorola alliance in April 1999. However, upon the launch of Clipper, Cubic Transportation Systems has taken over administration of distribution, customer service, and financial settlement of the program.
Full implementation of Clipper has been far slower than that of similar contactless smart cards, including the Oyster card and SmarTrip, chiefly due to bureaucratic difficulties.
On June 16, 2010, MTC changed the TransLink name to Clipper, an homage to the clipper ships of the 19th century, which were the fastest route for traveling from the east coast to San Francisco, and eliminated the contact interface which had been used to load funds onto the cards at Translink machines.
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Wikipedia