Quinn Approves Universal Fare Card for RTA, Metra and Pace
Chicagoland commuters should have a more seamless way to use the three transit agencies by 2015.
A universal fare card system for RTA, Metra and Pace transportation systems was signed into legislation by Gov. Pat Quinn Thursday, according to the Chicago Daily Herald.
The bill will "allow riders to use credit or debit cards or prepaid cards on all transit systems effective Jan. 1, 2015."
"This is 21st century transit reform," Quinn said during the signing ceremony, according to The Chicago Tribune.
“Now it's the law and everyone will work toward that date,” RTA deputy executive director of communications Diane Palmer told the Herald. “This is obviously a key priority for the RTA.”
Additionally, the law calls for Metra to create a train tracking system that is similar to the Chicago Transit Authorities' Bus and Train Tracker programs, and for every train to have have defibrillators. The bill also requests that Metra, if it can do so at no charge to the agency itself, provide free Wi-Fi for travelers while the RTA has been requested to study the costs of implementing an Internet system on its buses and trains.
Read the full story from the Chicago Daily Herald here and The Chicago Tribune here.
Rick Foster
6:33 am on Friday, July 8, 2011
Isthis Jackass nuts? More opportunity for low level scammers to ride buses and trains with bad credit cards. The ride for free with bad transit cards now, simply by acting like there is a physical problem with the card, usually by slightly bending the card, and acting innocently. Bad Move Pat!
Rick Foster
6:33 am on Friday, July 8, 2011
Isthis Jackass nuts? More opportunity for low level scammers to ride buses and trains with bad credit cards. The ride for free with bad transit cards now, simply by acting like there is a physical problem with the ca
rd, usually by slightly bending the card, and acting innocently. Bad Move Pat!
Clark Kent
11:30 am on Friday, July 8, 2011
Another fanfare about "efficiency" and management. Silly nonsense. Once again the "government" will suck money out of already debt-ridden taxpayers who stupidly think that they can (like Quinn and most Democrats) postpone the eventual financial reckoning (a fancy word for PAYING WHAT YOU OWE!).
Within another generation or so, EVERYTHING will be paid (including "salaries") by electronic cards. It will be a perpetual festival for terrorists, demented hackers and criminals. And if the "Government" wants to stop you in your tracks, they will use federal laws to block all your access to your own accounts.
Because of the loony-left, Democrats, socialists, tree-huggers, and other assorted goofs in the ObamaNation with their compulsion to be control freaks, citizens will once again be serfs living at the mercy of their Democratic lords of the manor. And the proletariet will lament: "Why didn't somebody DO something back then?" The boobs will never realize that people didn't stand up to these politicians because they were more mesmerized by deliberate media distractions like Paris Hilton's latest binge, Snoop Dog's drug history, Charlie Sheen's career, Sammy Sosa's vitamin regimen, Oprah's latest diet to remove ugly fat from below her neck, the Royal weddings and comparable useless banter.
The public kept electing the Daleys, Madigans, Obamas, Durbins, Schakowskys, Kennedys, Strogers, Cullertons, Silversteins and sordid trash who treat voters like port a-potties.