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The technology behind the ORCA system used by transit agencies in the Puget Sound area is too old, according to TriMet, so the agency decided Wednesday to create its own e-fare system that will work better in the digital age.

(Steve Ringman/Seattle Times)

In 2009, seven public transit agencies around Puget Sound teamed up to launch their $43 million

electronic-fare system.

Staying true to the now-ubiquitous "tap" card's acronym – One Regional Card for All – they developed it in such a way that any agency in the Pacific Northwest could quickly and cheaply join the e-fare network.

ORCA already has a website for processing card transactions and loading funds to riders' debit accounts. There's a 1-800 customer service number. More importantly, they have four years of experience working out the kinks.

Yet on Wednesday, the

board of directors unanimously approved a contract to develop the agency's own $30 million e-fare system fitting of what General Manager Neil McFarlane called "the digital age we live in."

Why shrug off a neighborly money-saving gesture from the north?

TriMet's position: Thanks for the offer, ORCA, but you might as well be using a Windows 95 PC.

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"We looked at the smart-card system in Seattle, Utah and Minneapolis," said Chris Tucker, TriMet's director of revenue operations. "But they're basically locked into yesterday's first-generation card technology."

Actually, transportation economists say this is simply the break of the digital age's dawn. TriMet and every other transit company trying to retire century-old paper tickets and passes, they warn, risk being left in the exhaust of the next high-tech revolution.

In some ways, that's happening to the ORCA system, which is stuck in neutral until its current vendor contract ends in a few years.

Led by SoundTransit, the Puget Sound transit agencies actually began developing their debit-card system 10 years ago.

Before boarding a bus, ferry or train, ORCA users tap the blue card on a reader mounted at stations or on vehicles. It simplified commuting by replacing some 300 varieties of passes, tickets and transfers. Today, the card is used by about 80 percent of riders.

But it's also a "closed loop" payment system chained to the card and its embedded microchip.

"The technology is moving so quickly," said Cheryl Huston, ORCA's regional program administrator. TriMet's plan, she said, "is a step ahead."

Yes, TriMet's future e-fare system will have its own reloadable tap card. But Tucker envisions an open system that allows riders to also pay for a fare with a single wave of their bank-issued cards or smartphones over the new readers.

Unlike ORCA, which stores encoded information on a card's microchip, TriMet would use an account-based technology that will access data wirelessly from a secure computer server within a second, Tucker said.

"We believe contactless payments and mobile wallets (on smartphones) will become a common way to pay at merchants over the next several years," said Tucker, a former operations manager for AT&T Wireless who came to TriMet in 2007. "It's also convenient for customers to pay for transit using the same payment media they use at other retailers."

However, Philip Keitel, a senior analyst at Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia who has studied the electronification of transit fare payments, said there's "no clear business case" to justify such predictions.

Keitel said major U.S. banks and large retailers such as Walmart and Target have invested millions to encourage consumers to use contactless credit and debit cards. The cards are embedded with integrated circuits that communicate with a terminal via radio waves.

"But the behavior hasn't developed," Keitel said. "Consumers just don't seem to be interested. The future of this technology at this point is very muddled."

But Tucker, who has been credited with weeding out waste in TriMet fare programs and championing innovation such as the coming

ticketing app, is intent on making sure the agency's e-fare system isn't dependent on any one delivery system.

He used a Lego analogy to describe how the system would be scalable and snap easily into place with emerging mobile technologies.

TriMet would essentially become a wireless commuting bank, where riders could instantly deposit and withdraw funds for fares over the air. Chicago's CTA transit system is among those taking the same approach.

Under the $2.4 million contracted with CH2M Hill approved by the TriMet board, the company will design and implement the system over the next three years. That includes a test of two gated stations with turnstiles at the Bybee and Park Avenue stations along the future Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail line.

Eventually, Tucker said, the new system should pay for its $30 million price tag by reducing fare evasion and lowering the high costs associated with ticket vending machines, cash purchases and collection processing.

Among other things, TriMet's e-fares would incorporate an incentive program that would work like a frequent-rider punch card.

For riders who aren't sure it's worth the money to buy a monthly pass, e-fares eliminate the up-front cost. Spend $100 in 20 days – the cost of a 30-day pass – you would ride at no cost for the next 10 days.

Meanwhile, riders without a credit card, bank account or Internet connection would still be able to add funds to cards at a robust network of neighborhood supermarkets and retailers, Tucker said.

When the ORCA card was under development a decade a ago, "no one could predict the cellular data speeds we have now," Tucker said. "What we don't want is to have one vendor that does everything when technology changes in five years – and it will."

-- Joseph Rose