ORCA card
 
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| Location | Puget Sound region, United States |
|---|---|
| Launched | April 20, 2009 |
| Technology |
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| Operator | Vix Technology |
| Manager | Central Puget Sound Regional Fare Coordination System |
| Currency | US Dollar ($5 minimum load, $300 maximum load) |
| Stored-value | E-purse |
| Credit expiry | None |
| Auto recharge | Autoload |
| Validity | |
| Retailed |
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| Variants |
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| Website | orcacard |
The ORCA ("One Regional Card for All") card is a contactless, stored value smart card used for payment of public transport fares in the Puget Sound region of Washington state, United States. ORCA was introduced on a limited basis on April 20, 2009, with a full public launch in June 2009. As of March 2016, an adult ORCA card costs $5, one of the highest prices for a public transportation smart card in the United States.
Central Puget Sound transit agencies have collaborated in a region-wide fare system since 1991 with the introduction of U-PASS and later FlexPass. In 1996, voters approved Sound Move, which called for an integrated regional fare policy for a "one-ticket ride". That goal led to the creation of the PugetPass in 1999, which allowed transit riders to use a single pass for five transit agencies.
On April 29, 2003, an agreement to implement a smart card system between the seven agencies in the Central Puget Sound Regional Fare Coordination Project (Sound Transit, King County Metro, Community Transit, Everett Transit, Pierce Transit, Kitsap Transit, and Washington State Ferries) was signed along with a US$43 million contract awarded to ERG Transit Systems (now Vix Technology) as the vendor and system integrator of the project. The ORCA card was originally anticipated to be operational in 2006.
On Friday, April 17, 2009, ORCA announced a limited rollout of the regional smart card beginning April 20, 2009. The limited rollout allowed remaining technical issues in the system to be resolved. An extensive rollout and public outreach campaign followed in June 2009. Blank cards were available at no charge during the introductory period, but as of March 1, 2010, the card cost $5 ($3 for reduced fare permit holders). Users of PugetPasses, FlexPasses, and other passes were to be gradually transitioned to ORCA.
The ORCA launch press kit gave a launch timeline as follows:
Between November 9 and December 22, 2006, as many as 6,000 transit riders were asked to participate in a live test of the smart card system. The test was conducted on selected routes of the seven participating agencies. The University of Washington conducted a separate test for integrating ORCA with the Husky Card and U-PASS during the same period.
The card uses the ISO/IEC 14443 RFID standard. Specifically, the MIFARE DESFire EV1 which "implements all 4 levels of ISO / IEC 14443A and uses optional ISO / IEC 7816-4 commands.".
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