Cubic, of San Diego, installed the very same system as TAP on the county network. It’s called Compass, and works the same way as TAP is supposed to.

You’ll see the same pylons as the Metro Rail stations along the Trolley.

San Diego’s Compass system does not need fare gates. There is also no way San Diego can install fare gates on the Trolley, since the stations are open access and many of the split-platform stations allow pedestrians to walk across the tracks.

http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/02/26/socata-monthly-meeting/#comment-309

I’m not doing a sit in or anything 1960s like, I’m not a dirty hippie ;)

Also went to the Evergreen Cemetary tour DN owing to your calendar of events. It was very interesting found out the founder of Ralph’s Grocery store (who is burried there) was crushed by a boulder (his wife was on top of it, maybe I’m implying something maybe I’m not) while hiking in Lancaster, which was I thought was pretty cool.

Browne

All of it’s bad, bad, bad, especially considering all of those silly meetings they had the last few weeks and no one at METRO thought to have a public meeting on this.

More reasons that METRO needs to be given a plan to be forced to run on profit, so they they would actually listen to the customers….

“Metro Board Member Bernard Parks added that when the Red Line was being constructed, the LAPD wanted fare gates installed. “Since 9-11″ it’s important to look at how vulnerable Metro stations are. ” dn

Outfu*kingrageous, hey how about the people who got shot at the bus stop in South LA, they look pretty vulnerable, how about 80 million to stop that…idiots, idiots, idiots.

Great piece DN
Browne

This whole issue is insane. Revenue will not make up for it, as fewer riders will use the subway.

So LA is the only subway not to have gates.
Great, LA is in the 21 Century. The other cites were built in the 19 Century.

Better security is available with more fare inforcers, gates will not stop a gun or bomb.

And almost all of them ARE elected – just not solely on the issue of transportation.

If anything we need an unelected board, with well defined conflict-of-interest laws. But then comes the question of who appoints them and for how long.

I heard a person tell me back in the old days the CTC or RTD boards used to have Q & A with the audience. That’s what we should push for!

You would have to put John Walsh vs. Antonio and Bernie on Pay Per View and charge $100 a ticket.

Congrats on the new site Good Damien. ;-)

This is why we need an elected Metro Board; the current structure provides no accountability. Maybe we should ask the incoming Assembly Speaker Karen Bass if she’d carry legislation on this topic.

Day passes and monthly passes make a metro system so much easier and smarter. If you can spend 70 bucks and get a monthly pass, it really puts into perspective how much more you’d be spending on a car. It provides the perfect contrast.

Here is my hypothesis: the MTA is so top-heavy that it needs to beg and borrow its way to keep its staff and equipment on the payroll, even though it has a massive budget of several billion dollars.

There is probably a small team of grant writers on the MTA, and a congressional aide or two, working to bring some “anti-terrorism” money to the MTA through some ridiculous grant program.

This is just a guess as to why this idiotic line of reasoning is being used.

I recently got a TAP card and although the ways of “reloading” are nicer than buying passes in the past, constantly taking it out is a pain! I liked the old paper passes because I *didn’t* have to take it out and potentially misplace it 6 times a day. I also have found myself tapping my card on half the machines twice before it is picked up and read correctly.

The TAP system honestly makes me feel very uncomfortable as well. I can see how it will easily be used to track individuals activity within the stations since, with some carefully placed cameras, they can know who you are as soon as you walk in and where you go (based on statistics from your past trips). Since they know when, where and how you reload it and they can get related credit card information(if that is how you pay), they know where to find you and contact you. They also ask you to “register” your TAP card, asking for information like your name, address and phone number. (I kinda suspect if they aren’t putting that special bomb technology in the turnstiles now because the TAP cards will already give them way more personal information on each individual.)

Are any of the people that made this decision every-day riders of the metro system?

I recall reading that someone had calculated it would take the flood of people coming off a MetroLink trains something like 69 minutes to make their way through turnstiles at Union Station. Have you heard of this number and do you know what happened with that study and if it was taken into consideration for this decision?

Was there any mention of TAP? The Metro Press Release devoted at least two paragraphs to it, semi-confirming my suspicions that this all has to do with the stupid little contactless fare cards that simply make no sense on Metro Rail without gates.

Great reporting Damien. I can tell Streetsblog LA is really going to pwn.