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TriMet unveiled the highly anticipated ticketing app from GlobeSherpa on Monday morning. Validated tickets have an animated screen showing a bus moving past Portland scenery.

(Joseph Rose)

With a nod to Apple's buzz-generating marketing genius, TriMet on Friday afternoon sent out a mysterious and eye-grabbing invitation to the local media.

Using an image of three polished iPhones displaying electronic fares, Oregon's largest transit agency teased "an exciting announcement about the TriMet Tickets mobile ticketing app" on Monday.

Just how exciting depends on whether you're a TriMet rider who owns an iPhone and how sick you are of the agency's ticket vending machines constantly freezing up.

The invite worked like magic. TriMet may be caught in the middle of financial cyclone, but Monday's unveiling of the ticketing drew more TV cameras and radio microphones than any budget hearing.

The free app, developed by local software startup GlobeSherpa, promises to be the first used by a U.S. transit agency to let bus, train and streetcar riders conveniently buy and use fares from their iPhones and Androids.

"We're trying to move to an electronic fare system for the entire transit agency," said Chris Tucker, TriMet's manager of fare revenue services. "This is one of the first steps to move people away from the old paper system."

So, how will it work? What is it costing TriMet? Does it live up to the high-tech hype? How can you get it on your mobile gadget?

Let's take a ride on the Q&A Line.

Q: Is a ticketing app even necessary?

A: If you've never missed a bus while scrounging for exact change, have never run into a broken ticket machine (seriously?) and prefer to purchase tickets at the grocery store, you probably have no need for it.

But know this: The response by the public has been overwhelming.

On Twitter and other social network sites, people have been downright giddy with anticipation about the app -- and saying goodbye to TVMs forever (often with triple exclamation marks!!!). Meanwhile, more than 1,500 riders applied for 150 beta testing slots over four days.

"I think all of us have had experiences where the ticket vending machine has been broken," said Nat Parker, CEO of GlobeSherpa. "Or we've been in a hurry, where maybe an outlet doesn't have a ticket we want. I felt this would be an easier way to ride."

In recent weeks, TriMet has conceded that it has serious problems with TVMs malfunctioning hundreds of times a year, even as it revs up fare enforcement and increasingly hands out $175 citations for those caught without a ticket.



Given that, it's hard to knock someone outside the agency for coming up with a better way.

TriMet estimates that 50 percent of its 330,000 riders already owns smartphones.

"Next time you're on a MAX train," Parker said, "just look around at all of the people staring at their phones."

Q: So, how much taxpayer money is TriMet spending on this app?

A: At this point: Zilch.

In fact, the app could wind up saving the budget-battered agency millions. Before we do the math, let's look at the history.

In late in 2010, seeing the potential of mobile payments, GlobeSherpa sent an unsolicited proposal for the app to TriMet.

The agency liked the idea and, as required, published a public notice to make sure other companies weren't interested in providing an e-fare solution. No one -- not even traditional fare vendors -- responded to the notice. So, TriMet continued to negotiate with GlobeSherpa.

There's no upfront cost.

GlobeSherpa will be paid 7 percent per transaction in the first year of the contract; an estimated 5 percent in years two and three. In addition to GlobeSherpa's commission, TriMet will pay a service fee of 4 percent for payment processing.

By comparison, TriMet pays 5.2 percent in processing fees per transaction via its TVMs.

But as a 2011 white paper on "fare system migration" found, TriMet's current fare-management costs far exceed processing fees.

In fact, the report showed, 28 percent of every fare purchased at 215 TVMs and about 10 percent at bus fare boxes goes toward equipment, maintenance, collecting revenue and myriad other expenses.

Maintenance alone on ticket machines at MAX stations costs the agency about $2.5 million a year.

Q: How easy is it to use?

A: Like an Amazon.com or iTunes account, you enter your credit or debit card information just once. From there, you can buy a monthly pass, day pass or any other fare on your phone in three steps -- whenever and wherever. Because a minimum $5 purchase is necessary, two-hour fares can be purchased only in quantities of two or more. But the app stores purchased fares until you're ready to use them by hitting a "validate" button to start the clock ticking.

The mysterious invite sent to the media by TriMet last week.

Q: What about security? What's to stop someone from just taking a picture of their electronic fare and sending it to a friend to use?

A: GlobeSherpa has worked animation, scannable QR codes, time stamps and other snazzy anti-counterfeiting features into the app. Once a fare is validated, it becomes animated, with a cartoonish landscape of Portland landmarks (including birds on a wire) rolling past the on-screen bus. Any suspicious bus driver or fare inspector can ask for the user to tap the screen, which turns the "lights on" inside the bus. For those tempted to hoard tickets until an inspector boards a train or bus, the time stamp flashes to show when a fare has just been activated.



Q: I don't own a smartphone. Does anything change for me?

A: Nope. The emergence of the electronic-fare age doesn't mean TriMet is going to start ripping TVMs out of stations. The end of paper tickets is still years away.

Q: Where can I download the app?

A: Starting this week, beta testers – a cross section of riders based on geography, frequency of riding and the smartphones they use -- will be the first to try it out. The app is expected to go public in late summer.

-- Joseph Rose