While NJ Transit bus and train riders have the 21st Century option of buying a ticket with a smartphone and showing it to bus drivers and conductors, light rail passengers are still in the paper ticket world of the 20th Century.

Now, only light rail commuters who buy a monthly pass can use NJ Transit My Tix app to buy and store tickets on their smartphones. But that is going to change. Really.

Other light rail riders who use single ride tickets do a kabuki dance of buying a paper ticket at one machine and taking it to a different machine to time stamp it. They’re not always next to each other in all stations. Sometimes the validator doesn’t validate the ticket.

@NJTRANSIT validator down again , same one, same platform. 22nd Street light rail. Thank You. pic.twitter.com/8bozvQabpr — Michelle Larner (@Makeupmichelle) January 26, 2020

What are light rail riders missing? The convenience of a system that rolled out early 2017 for bus riders who could buy a single ride ticket with a few taps on a smartphone, instead of fumbling with coins and dollar bills. Bus riders simply display their activated ticket to the bus driver as they get on.

NJ Transit is in the process of upgrading the light rail validation devices using the new technology currently being tested on several bus routes, said Jim Smith, an NJ Transit spokesman. That work is part of a $114 million contract with Conduent Transport Solutions, hired in December 2017 to upgrade NJ Transit’s fare collection system.

“The current validators on NJ Transit’s light rail systems validate by time stamping a paper ticket,” he said. “The future validators will be able to read bar codes used by the My Tix application.”

While there is no formal timeline yet, officials anticipate by mid-2021 light rail riders could buy and scan tickets electronically, Smith said.

NJ Transit is testing similar scanners that light rail riders would use to “validate” their ticket on buses in Morris County that would help bring e-ticketing to NJ Transit’s three light rail lines. Ultimately, light rail riders could tap an enabled credit or debit card on a reader and go.

“They (scanners) would allow for tap and go,” Smith said. “This will be a phased-in aspect of the technology and may roll out following ticket/smartphone barcode acceptance.”

Why is light rail taking longer? Selling rail and bus tickets on the mobile app was implemented before installing scanner hardware because bus operators and train crews inspect those tickets visually, Smith said.

Light rail is different because it currently uses roving fare enforcement officers to check time-stamped paper tickets. Light rail is scheduled to get an electronic proof-of-payment system that reads electronic bar codes used by mobile app tickets, Smith said.

“As we move forward with our fare modernization program, the technology will be rolling out across various modes throughout our system,” he said.

If it seems laborious, this is the same cautious rollout that NJ Transit did of its MyTix ticket scanning technology when it began in April 2013. By testing smartphone rail tickets on the less traveled Pascack Valley Line, technical problems could be worked out before expanding it to other rail lines.

In 2015, the agency debuted the first generation NJT app that unified separate smartphone functions in one application, including MyTix. The app received a major overhaul last fall.

Although NJ Transit has a different contractor than New York’s MTA, the concept of allowing passengers to pay fare by tapping a properly equipped credit or debit card on a reader is similar. NJ Transit has provisions for development of a fare card and tap-and-go in the Conduent contract.

The MTA is increasing the number of OMNY fare readers in the subway system, which ultimately will replace the aging MetroCard by 2023.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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