Technical glitches have put RTD’s $15.3 million plan to move to a “smart” farecard system at least nine months behind schedule, prompting agency directors to demand a review of what went wrong with the program.
“We have experienced some technical challenges,” Regional Transportation District bus operations chief Bruce Abel told the board of directors last week as he detailed how a smartcard pilot program that was to begin in May is now scheduled to start in February.
“This is a highly dissatisfying result; it cries out for (a) lessons learned (review),” said director John Tayer at the board meeting.
The failure to date of the ballyhooed smartcard system comes at a bad time for RTD. The agency is preparing a massive January reduction in transit service aimed at saving $12 million a year, and planning to promote a ballot measure for November 2012 that will ask voters to double the current 0.4 percent FasTracks sales tax so the transit expansion program can be completed.
For a number of years, RTD officials have been touting the move to smartcards as a way to get accurate ridership information and assist the agency in pricing its transit services properly.
In early 2010, RTD selected ACS Transport Solutions to install smartcard readers on the transit agency’s 1,100 buses and light-rail platforms, as well as provide the communications devices needed to link buses and platforms with bus garages and central processing centers.
The contract called for a smartcard pilot program to be well underway during the second half of this year, with installation of smartcard readers initially on about 50 buses in the Boulder area in May, then on about 350 buses in June and July, and finally for readers and related equipment to be on RTD’s entire fleet of 1,100 buses by the end of this year.
On Friday, Abel said RTD now is in the process of installing the smartcard hardware on nine buses initially — one from each of its fleet types — and agency officials will work with ACS to see if the new equipment on these test vehicles communicates properly.
In May, RTD determined that the smartcard equipment failed to communicate as designed during “factory acceptance” testing at ACS.
RTD planned to initially test the smartcards with users of its Eco Pass program, but documents presented to the board last week said “tests performed in August failed and ACS is addressing the issue.”
Abel said RTD so far has paid ACS $2 million of the total $15.3 million contract price for the smartcard system.
“My expectation is that ACS will resolve these issues and see this through to a successful launch of a product that we’re proud to offer our customers,” he said.
In a statement issued Friday, ACS said, “We have identified the issues that caused the delays and outlined a solution to bring this complex project to a successful completion at no additional cost to RTD or its riders.”
A new tentative schedule for the introduction of smartcards calls for RTD and ACS to test them on about 45 buses and two rail platforms in February, with an expansion to 350 buses and all platforms in April.
When RTD directors were briefed last week on the smartcard program delay, some were not mollified by assurances that all would be rectified.
“Mr. Washington, this is a black eye, a direct reflection on you and the performance you demand from your contractors,” board chairman Lee Kemp told RTD general manager Phil Washington.
In an interview on Friday, Washington acknowledged, “I do pride myself in being on schedule” with RTD projects. But he noted that a smartcard program, once in place fully, will touch nearly every transit rider on every boarding, so it is important to make sure the technology works before it is introduced.
“If being concerned about how this project impacts the public and our drivers is a bad spot on my record, I can accept that as long as we are not negatively impacting our passengers,” Washington said.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
