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CplKlinger said:
For a pilot, I think it's going pretty well so far. The machines at the LRT stations are nice and quick as you say, although for some reason I can keep my Arc Card in my wallet sleeve to tap with those machine, whereas I must take my card out of my wallet to tap on and off the bus. I'm guessing they're the same machines, so I wonder why the discrepancy is there. Aside from that, my one major complaint is that a number of machines are broken. It started with a couple of scanners at the UofA station which said that rejected the cards, even if some other scanners in that same station accepted those cards. Now more than half of the scanners at the UofA station are affected, as well as many machines at other LRT stations (and I hear some buses as well). At the UofA station, the broken machines are also the one in the most prominent spots, so the vast majority of taps at that station aren't going through right now. I called 311 about it yesterday and they logged my issue, so at least they know about it now!

On another note, the new fare vending machine at Health Sciences has an Arc sign now; here's an up-close shot of what it looks like.
View attachment 353685
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Had to take a close look at that picture, the reflection makes it look like they just stuck it on with scotch tape
 
Someone on another forum commented that they did not think phase two would start by the end of the year, given how little time is left. Another user who's in the know responded with some interesting insight:

"They are still working on issues with the post-secondary roll out but hopefully this pilot helps work out more kinks while not delaying the completion of the initial phases. I think it will get started before the end of the year, even if the pilot is with 10 people. This is a "pay as you go" type pilot, and not passes like the post-secondary one is, so it should be interesting."

I asked them what kinks in particular were holding them back, to-which they responded:

"Data update frequency is hours delayed, so even though a student activates a card it might not be recognized by the Arc system until hours later. Phase 2 (pay-as-you-go) is already being worked on but not sure when it will launch officially."
 
I just noticed a subtle but interesting change to the Edmonton and St. Albert websites. The sub-heading for phase two of the rollout used to say "starting 2021", but that was scrubbed today. Here are archived versions (Edmonton, St. Albert) to show the difference. I know this change was made today because I check Edmonton's page every day, and yesterday that sub-heading still contained a specific ETA.
 
I dont get why this hasn't been an option for the last decade. Anyone know why? Seems like a no brainer for casual users and tourists. Then transit cards can be for regular users who want monthly maximums and all that.

dailyhive.com

TransLink riders will be able to tap debit cards on the Compass system | Urbanized

Contactless debit cards are being added as an option for fare payment on TransLink's Compass system, providing added convenience.
dailyhive.com dailyhive.com
 
thommyjo said:
I dont get why this hasn't been an option for the last decade. Anyone know why? Seems like a no brainer for casual users and tourists. Then transit cards can be for regular users who want monthly maximums and all that.

dailyhive.com

TransLink riders will be able to tap debit cards on the Compass system | Urbanized

Contactless debit cards are being added as an option for fare payment on TransLink's Compass system, providing added convenience.
dailyhive.com dailyhive.com
Click to expand...

Because ETS is about 20 years behind the times.
 
ChazYEG said:
That's accurate. I come from a midsize city in a third world country, and still, we got transit cards, with online loading and smart fares back in 2005.
It's unacceptable that Edmonton doesn't have it to this day
Click to expand...
But what about just debit or credit card use? Why is that not more common? Why the presto and compass and arc cards everywhere?
 
thommyjo said:
But what about just debit or credit card use? Why is that not more common? Why the presto and compass and arc cards everywhere?
Click to expand...
It is becoming cheaper now, with NFC technology taking off in the past two or three years, but it was operationally complex and extremely expensive. Also, up until maybe 4 or 5 years ago, most cards didn't use the NFC tech, so it would've been sorta pointless to spend all the money for a tech barely in use at the timem
The interface between the different payment systems is complicated, at the very least, and it was costly to implement (and few companies had the technical know-how to do it properly in this scale).
However, I do agree that it should become more common, possibly the norm, as technology has progressed and we now need very little more to implement it than we do to have regular transit cards.
 
Well, now we know that it'll cost $6 to buy an Arc card and load the initial funds, but Arc Cards aren't for sale yet. This was seen at McKernan/Belgravia station.
20211124_124531.jpg
20211124_124519.jpg
 
CplKlinger said:
I just noticed a subtle but interesting change to the Edmonton and St. Albert websites. The sub-heading for phase two of the rollout used to say "starting 2021", but that was scrubbed today. Here are archived versions (Edmonton, St. Albert) to show the difference. I know this change was made today because I check Edmonton's page every day, and yesterday that sub-heading still contained a specific ETA.
Click to expand...
Well, now we know why. The arc card rollout to fare paying users has been delayed to 2022 due to issues found during testing (tapping by upass users). https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/edmonton-transit-fares-increase-february-2022
 
CplKlinger said:
Well, now we know why. The arc card rollout to fare paying users has been delayed to 2022 due to issues found during testing (tapping by upass users). https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/edmonton-transit-fares-increase-february-2022
Click to expand...
Wish I could never deliver projects on time and still make six figures at my job :) really hope people are being let go that lead all of these projects plagued by endless delays and issues. I dont mean to be rude to the individuals, but at a certain point we just need competent people. The impact is too large when this stuff is done wrong, poorly, slowly, etc.
 
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