Chicago can look west for transit card model

[marmar]

By Richard Wronski, Tribune reporter
July 10, 2011


Chicago-area transit riders can look to the San Francisco area to see how a single fare card can be used on myriad systems.

In the Bay Area, the Clipper card can be used to pay fares and transfer among most buses, commuter trains, streetcars, ferries and even the famous cable cars — on no fewer than seven transit systems.

If the transit districts and scores of municipalities in the nine-county Bay Area can work together to create a single fare card, can the same be done in the six-county Chicago metro area?

That's the task ahead for the Regional Transportation Authority. Gov. Pat Quinn on Thursday signed legislation giving the RTA until 2015 to develop a fare card usable on Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace systems. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-universal-fare-20110710,0,7200990.story