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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

Summer 2010

MTC Aims to Revolutionize Transit Travel
With New ClipperSM Card

All-in-one, reloadable fare card available free of charge during introductory period

Introduced at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, the Clipper transit fare card revives the spirit of the speedy clipper ships of the Gold Rush era and the Clipper flying boats of the 1930s. (Photos: Noah Berger)

Already, a half-dozen transit systems accept the Clipper card for fare payment.

Where to Get Clipper

  • Riders can order a free (for a limited time) Clipper card, and add cash value — or a pass for a specific agency — online at clippercard.com, by phone (877.878.8883), at select transit agency ticket offices or at more than 200 participating retail locations, including scores of Walgreens stores. An Autoload feature — in which value is automatically added when the cash balance drops below $10 or a pass expires — is also available. Clipper offers card replacement and balance restoration for customers who register cards that later end up lost, damaged or stolen.

A new way of riding public transit sailed into the San Francisco Bay Area this summer, and it sports a catchy and evocative moniker: Clipper. The card is named for the grand sailing ships that accelerated travel to the West Coast during the Gold Rush era, as well as for the Clipper aircraft that sped travel across the Pacific Ocean in the 1930s. MTC and its transit agency partners are hoping that the Clipper card will similarly revolutionize travel around the nine-county region by bus, train and ferry.

Featuring a stylized pattern of sails — reminiscent of the clipper ships — against a blue background that evokes the sea, Clipper is being marketed as the “all-in-one” transit card. Made of plastic and the size of a credit card, Clipper is embedded with a smart chip that keeps track of passes, ride books and cash value, while recognizing and applying all applicable fares, discounts and transfer rules.

In keeping with the nautical theme, the official Clipper launch took place at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park in mid-June. Representatives of the participating transit agencies were on hand to celebrate the rebranding of the region’s universal fare card, formerly called TransLink®.

The new image and marketing push set the stage for a regionwide roll-out of Clipper, and the eventual phase-out of a confusing array of paper tickets and passes. Clipper card holders also can say farewell to the inconvenience of having to carry exact change for single rides.

“Your riders are going to love it,” said Steve Shewmaker, president of Cubic Transportation Systems, at the kick-off event. “It’s convenient, it’s green.” Cubic is engineering the Clipper fare-collection system under contract to MTC.

Normally costing $5, the card is being offered free of charge during the introductory period. Currently, the card can be used to pay fares on San Francisco Muni, BART, AC Transit, Caltrain, Golden Gate Transit and Ferry, and the Dumbarton Express, which together carry more than 80 percent of all Bay Area transit passengers. Later this year, SamTrans and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority are scheduled to begin accepting Clipper — bringing the number of participating systems to eight and the share of riders served to 95 percent.

Already, there are 135,000 active cards in circulation (as of mid-July 2010). As the card continues to penetrate the transit-riding market, MTC expects that transactions will rise from the current 1.7 million a month to upwards of 5 million a month before the year is out.
— John Goodwin & Brenda Kahn

Transactions Summer 2010 Issue: Contents