May/June 2023 - 35

fare, and that's it, with fare capping taking
care of the rest. "
Hosch explained the decision to begin
capping fares was made to help everybody
in Milwaukee ride public transit, regardless
of income status.
" We're offering the old pass rates to everybody,
regardless if riders are paying
for it all upfront or if they're just paying
$2 a tap, which is helpful for people in
low income communities that maybe can
only afford to put a little money on their
card once a week, and that's really easy
to pitch to riders, " he said.
HART, PSTA, The Bus
Contactless Payment System
In February, three transit agencies in the
Tampa, Fla., area - Hillsborough Transit
Authority (HART), the Pinellas Suncoast
Transit Authority (PSTA) and Hernando
County Transit (The Bus) launched a firstof-its-kind
regional contactless payment
system in the state of Florida. Each ride costs
$2, with a fare cap of $4 per day. Riders can
pay for their fare through various payment
methods, including Apple Pay, Google Pay
and debit cards, as well as the Flamingo
Fares smartcard or mobile app. Flamingo
Fares allows a rider to use the same payment
method across all three agencies.
Stephanie Rank, communications and
public relations manager at PSTA, said
all three transit agencies came together
to create a uniform fare system across the
Tampa Bay region.
" Before the rollout of this system, if
riders were riding HART, they would
have to pay HART's fare. If they were
riding Hernando, they would have to
Flamingo card/app
Photo: HART
pay Hernando's fare, and the same is
true for [PSTA's] fare, and that made it
really hard for riders to keep track of how
much money they have to spend on each
agency, " Rank said.
Rank noted the system was in development
for five years before launching,
saying " a lot of testing with different cards
and readers went into the development to
ensure no hiccups at launch. "
Emmanuel Nunez, manager of retail
sales and revenue at HART, says the feedback
he's received from HART riders has
been overwhelmingly positive.
" The satisfaction from riders is about
98 percent since the system officially
launched, " Nunez said. " We had a few
one-offs early on where the system would
charge a client $4 instead of $2, and it was
a quick fix with vendors and no customers
have complained about the system. "
HART also has its " Legacy System, "
which is a paper card riders can purchase
that is not a contactless card. Nunez explained
while HART wants all of its riders
to transition to contactless payments
eventually, it knows there is still a market
for the " Legacy System, " and they will not
be discontinuing it anytime soon.
Even though the system has only been
in operation for two months, Rank said
PSTA is already seeing a boost in ridership,
noting PSTA's revenue increased
by about $4,000 between February and
March. Nunez noted ridership for HART
is up five percent. Hernando County Public
Information Coordinator Dominique
Holmes noted The Bus has not seen an
increase in ridership but pointed out The
Bus' ridership is significantly less than
PSTA and HART, as it only covers the
rural urban area of Tampa.
While PSTA is happy with its $2 fare
price for its services, in the future, the agency
is looking to implement a fare discount
for its seniors across all payment methods.
" Right now, the discounted fare for
seniors is only through the Flamingo
Card, but that's the next phase of our
contactless pay payment system, " Rank
noted. " Right now, phase one is where
you can use your Apple Pay, Google Pay
Transit app, credit card, debit card, tappable
card, but the next phase is getting
that parameters where if you are a senior
citizen or if you do need a discounted
fair, and you qualify for a discounted fair,
you'll be able to register your card and
then automatically the next time you pay
for a fair, it's discounted. "
On the topic of potentially going fare
free across all PSTA's modes like the
agency has done with the SunRunner
bus rapid transit system, Rank says it all
comes down to funding.
" We would love to provide equitable
free transit to everybody because it is a
lifeline to a lot of people that use it to get
to work, to get to medical appointments,
to have freedom, but we need the proper
funding to be able to do that. PSTA is
one of the least funded transit agencies
in the country, so we have to charge a fare
to help with operating costs, " Rank said.
Nunez said the agencies will be looking
to expand the contactless system in the
future to more agencies.
" Everything depends on funding, but
the system has the ability to incorporate
additional agencies, so even though we
could have agencies that could drop off
because they have a particular vision that
they want to accomplish, and they want
to come back or new agencies want to
come in, that could happen in the next
few years, " Nunez said.
MAY/JUNE 2023 | MassTransitmag.com 35
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May/June 2023

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