Lesson
Establish a pricing structure for the new fare media that makes them competitive with other available fare media.
Ventura County’s experience with an automated transit fare collection system.
9/1/2001
Ventura,California,United States
Background (Show)
Lesson Learned
During the Smart Passport program, each transit agency continued to set its own fare policy while offering both the existing monthly pass and the stored value Smart Passport passes. Unfortunately, SCAT would not consent to lowering the price of the monthly Passport, making the SCAT pass more competitive. (Table 3 compares the Smart Passport prices with SCAT pass prices.) Thus, customers who traveled on SCAT lines had little incentive to purchase the Smart Passport, other than its stored-value feature. Although VCTC wanted fare parity, it was more important to secure SCATs participation in the program.
New fare media programs must be competitive with existing pass programs to attract enough of the transit population to make the program viable. Therefore, the participating agencies should establish a competitive pricing structure for the multi-agency program.
New fare media programs must be competitive with existing pass programs to attract enough of the transit population to make the program viable. Therefore, the participating agencies should establish a competitive pricing structure for the multi-agency program.
Lesson Categories
States
Countries
Systems Engineering
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Goal Areas
Keywords
smart cards, electronic fare payment, SmartCard, smart card, SmartCards
Lesson ID: 2005-00044
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