A new system designed to make it easier for people to pay for public transportation in the Bay Area has been postponed indefinitely.
The technology aimed at allowing people to board buses, trains and ferries with a tap of a debit or credit card or smartphone isn’t ready yet, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
Anyone who uses BART, Muni, AC Transit, or other public transportation systems can still use contactless payments, but they must use a virtual Clipper card.
MTC had planned to introduce a system called Clipper 2 this summer. The system allows public transit users to simply tap their credit or debit card instead of using their Clipper card. The commission said it has been conducting pilot programs for the next-generation system at SFMTA, Golden Gate Ferry, San Francisco Bay Ferry, Caltrain and SMART, and found issues that need to be resolved before moving forward to the next phase of testing.
As a result, the transition to the new system has been postponed until after this summer, MTC said. A progress report is expected in September.
Meanwhile, BART installed new Clipper card readers at some East Bay stations last month to make paying for transit faster and more convenient. But it had the opposite effect. Passengers complained that the new technology took several seconds to swipe their cards.
BART told the San Francisco Chronicle that it is working with the vendor to resolve the issue.
