BART will phase out the sale of paper tickets at four stations this summer.
Paper tickets will no longer be available for purchase at the Downtown Berkeley station July 8, at 19th Street Oakland on July 22, Embarcadero on Aug. 19, and Powell Street on Sept. 3.
Riders will still be able to add funds to paper tickets and use them to enter and exit through fare gates, BART officials said.
BART is planning on eliminating paper tickets system-wide in 2020 in favor of Clipper card exclusive fare payment.
BART is encouraging riders to switch to Clipper cards because of their benefits, like reduced paper waste, easier payment for parking, and shorter lines at fare gates because paper tickets can get jammed, the agency
said.
This is going to be a disaster.
Ever herd of an Octopus Card???
I’m guessing no. They use it in Hong Kong and it works perfectly. It can be used on subway, busses, trollies, etc. you can even use it at some stores and restaurant.
Instead of getting a paper pass you get the octopus card.
So…what do you do if you are visiting/have visitors in town?
Buy a clipper card
Exactly. I guess they don’t want tourist dollars. Works well for taxis, Uber and Lyft.
I wondered the same thing when my husband and I had a guest visit in May. The Bart stations do sell the plastic Clipper cards in a few select machines. There is a $3.00 charge that gets added to the price of the fare to pay for the card. Some stores (I think Walgreens for one) also sell Clipper cards.
so where are those new bart trains we all heard about and paid for and are still paying for with increased fairs
and yet employee bonuses are through the roof
janitors making 140k
and yet I have never seen one …..
They’re there. Just cant replace every train all at once.
C’mon BART…you already penalize non-Clipper card users that choose not to have their card information and personal trips tracked with higher surcharges. Will you be offering to purchase clipper cards for those of us without them? I would pay more for not having to listen to boom boxes and endure “dancers” swinging from the handrails, and no fecal matter to dodge on cars. Safety first. clipper cards only? And you wonder why you lose ridership. BART is always a last option for me.
Discrimination against the indigent and homeless by BART and in California? No problem, they ride free because the BART President of the Board, Bevan Duffy, just said the other day that fare evaders are not committing a crime. What a crock of crap!!!
Just read an article on the chronicle this morning regarding the people jumping gate. It is a fine rather than a crime; virtually nobody pay the fine because people give false names. The fine collector is tax fanchise board which goes after 3 types of income sources and they are the last in line to collect fine.
My opinion is that not a good use of resource to pay these fare inspectors and still incur 85m loss each year due to free rider. Time to install gate like the one similar to ny subway.
Why should anyone pay if there’s zero enforcement anyway?
besides, didn’t Bart get a billion dollar grant?
I can’t agree he was worth a billion dollars but BART did get a Grant. Point blank range while subdued.
Come on – they’ve got only $300 million so far, $1.17 billion is still in the works.
And what’s $1.5 billion going to do for BART? Chump change. In the last 2 years they’ve got more than $4 billion as a gift from idiot voters, and they still want more. And more. And more.
It takes a lot of taxpayer money to pay those $300K janitor salaries, no?
Come on people! Vote the fool out of office, Bevan Duffy. Wake up.
This will totally encourage fare jumpers…
Yes, I agree.
People will also start driving again and shun bart
when they change to just clipper tickets they will destroy their business.
As long is there are PROMINENT notices at the entrance to these stations. Simple to follow explanations about where, how, to get Clipper cards.
We only occasionally use BART for visiting the “big” cities, touristy stuff.
We had a misadventure recently when we drove to Oakland and had to take 19th Ave BART home at 10:30 P.M.. The first ticket dispenser we see is Clipper only. No sign about paper tickets can be purchased at other nearby dispensers, arrows directing you to these dispensers, etc.. We wandered around and luckily found the paper dispensers. When your car breaks down in the big city it’s not fun to find out you need Clipper cards at 10:30 at night!
So how does it work if you only use BART once or just a few times a year?
This is all about the data and being able to track people. It’s not about anything else.
It’s all about “customer service.”