June 9, 2016 Tom Prendergast Chairman and CEO Metropolitan Transportation Authority 2 Broadway New York, NY 10004 Dear Chairman Prendergast:

We write to ask for your help on a timely matter: guaranteeing that the MTA takes advantage of a unique opportunity to speed buses, by modifying the new fare payment system RFP to guarantee the option of implementing all-door boarding on all buses in the future.

Our organizations are strong proponents of a modern fare payment system, and support the valuable work the MTA is doing to upgrade ours. In other major world cities, transit riders can pay for their ride with the tap of a card, and the newest systems allow payment via smartphone or directly from bank cards. The MTA’s RFP for a new fare payment system will facilitate these conveniences, with great benefits for riders and for MTA operations.

However, as currently structured, the RFP does not require bidders to incorporate

one element that would make a significant difference for New York’s 2.5 million daily bus riders: the RFP does not require the features that would facilitate paperless all-door boarding on bus routes citywide.

Buses are vital elements of our transit network, providing service in neighborhoods

beyond the reach of the subway and lending much-needed redundancy and capacity to a system that is strained to the breaking point. Unfortunately, buses are also notoriously slow and unreliable. We should take advantage of every opportunity possible to improve bus service and make it a more appealing option for riders throughout the city.

One of the primary reasons our buses are slow is that riders spend too much time in

the boarding process: currently, we line up at the front of the bus, wait for everyone to exit, and then pay our fare one by one. It is a laborious process. Buses spend a quarter of their time stopped at bus stops, and slow payment is a primary reason. We have to do better.

In other cities such as San Francisco, riders don’t line up at the front of the bus and pay one by one: they can enter any door and pay by tapping their card against readers located by the doors. This process saves time for passengers, and it saves money for the transit agency.

In New York, all-door boarding has provided benefits where implemented—

currently, only on Select Bus Service routes. On these routes, fully half of the savings in travel time comes from the all-door boarding system. But this system is limited to SBS routes, which are a minuscule fraction of bus routes citywide. And the system uses outdated technology: riders acquire paper receipts from machines located on the street, which they then present to on-board inspectors upon request. Today, this can all be done electronically.

Implementation of a new fare payment system could be New York’s opportunity to switch to a better system—to make buses faster and more reliable for 2.5 million daily riders, and cheaper and more efficient for the MTA to operate. The new fare payment system should allow for all-door boarding on all bus routes, local and SBS alike. Like our counterparts in San Francisco, riders should be able to pay their fare at any door of a bus, and inspectors should have mobile devices that can check electronically to guarantee riders have paid. Those who wish to use coins can still board at the front of the bus and acquire a paper receipt, and those who pay digitally can use any door.

The MTA will save money by operating faster, more efficient buses, and because the

agency will no longer have to build and maintain fare payment machines on the street. Riders will benefit from faster buses, and implementation of this and other improvements could begin to reverse the decline in bus ridership that New York has suffered in recent years. Facilitating ease of payment on buses will also help reduce the urgency, and sometimes frustration, felt by riders rushing to purchase an off-board ticket when a bus is approaching. But the window of opportunity to move to such a system may close, if the RFP process moves forward without any requirement that the new fare payment system facilitate this option.

We urge the MTA to add an addendum to the existing RFP for the new fare

payment system, requiring bidders to include technology that would allow for fare sensors at every bus door and mobile on-board validation of payment. The “SBS pilot” currently included in the RFP—which is optional—is insufficient. An all-door boarding option should be required, and it should apply to bus routes throughout the city.

We realize that moving to such a system would be a complex process, and that it will

take time, commitment and significant investment. But the benefits would be enormous, for bus riders and for the MTA as well. And at this point in time, we are not asking the MTA to commit to moving to a modern all-door boarding system for buses—just to make sure

the new fare payment system would allow it in the future. At this critical juncture, as potential vendors form their bids, we urge you to amend the RFP to communicate clearly that such a feature is not only preferred—it is a necessary component of a potential winning bid.

Thank you for your attention to this timely concern.

Sincerely, John Raskin Gene Russianoff Executive Director Senior Attorney Riders Alliance Straphangers Campaign Veronica Vanterpool David Bragdon Executive Director Executive Director Tri-State Transportation Campaign TransitCenter

cc:

Veronique Hakim, President, New York City Transit

Members of the MTA board