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Miles Bader

writes:
In other words,
smart-card-based POP essentially needs "optional" faregates (which
pass-holders can bypass).

A 'tap' reader is a heck of a lot simpler than a turnstile.

The fare-card-reading part can be the same though, when using a
smart-card based system. After all, it's really doing exactly the
same thing in both cases: making a note on the card that the passenger
has entered at that station, and maybe debiting some "initial" amount
from any amount stored on the card.

Faster, too.

You've never used a modern Japanese faregate I guess... :]

[there's no "turning bar" like NYC-style turnstiles, in fact they
normally don't present any barrier, they just stay open while people
walk through -- but there's an extremely fast gate that shuts if
someone tries to go through without paying (it also opens very quickly
as soon as they've paid).]

The reason why I say the two would end up being structured very
similarly for a POP system where a large percentage of the passengers
aren't using passes is that you've got to (1) have enough "tap
readers" to handle large influxes of passengers, and (2) you want to
structure the station so that these large influxes of passengers can
use them in a short period of time (3) you want to ensure that
passengers can easily find them (even if they ran into the station at
the last minute to catch the train). In other words, you've got to
think about the flow of passengers who want to tap; simply plonking
down a few machines "here and there" on the platform doesn't scale
very well.

If electronic tickets are used, then the fare inspectors will need
portable readers. Actually, if going to POP, a paper based system
like the River Line would do the job and I don't see any advantage to
an electronic ticket. To me, electronic tickets are only justified
with turnstiles.

The problem with a "paper based system" is that it forces passengers to
stop and buy tickets, which is annoying and can be a huge bottleneck
(worse that a faregate by far).

For passenger convenience (which is very important I think), smart
cards completely thrash paper tickets.

-Miles

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