34. Commuting with Copper cards

Juliana: 00:00

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of your daily commute?

Ricky: 00:03

Or how transportation impacts the community you call home?

Juliana: 00:06

Maybe you want to explore outside your community and don't know where to start.

Ricky: 00:10

Well, you're in luck because this is where you hop on.

Juliana: 00:13

I'm Julianna Vazquez-Keating.

Ricky: 00:14

And I'm Ricky Tejada.

Juliana: 00:16

We work for Valley Metro and together we'll discover all the ways that public transit enhances lives across the cities we serve.

00:23 Ricky

And we might even make some new friends along the way.

Juliana: 00:26

Welcome to Storylines. And we're back with another episode of Storylines. In this episode, we're talking about big changes coming to our fare system. As you probably noticed, we have installed some shiny new fare machines at all our light rail platforms. I went out to a platform to get an up-close sneak peek and I have to say, they are pretty awesome.

Ricky: 00:47

I know me and the other Customer Experience Coordinators have seen them too. Part of my job as a CEC is helping people buy fare. And it sounds like there's a lot to learn about the new fare system.

Juliana: 00:57

That's why we brought in our very own in-house expert to teach us all about it.

Dane: 01:02

My name is Dane Ryals, and I'm a Marketing Program Coordinator with Valley Metro.

Ricky: 01:08

So, big changes are coming to the way that we buy fare, and we did cover it a bit on episode 28, but for those that don't know, can you give us an overview of what's really changing?

Dane: 01:17

Absolutely, first I think I will cover what is not changing in the new fare system, and that would be our fare prices. Even though we are changing how you pay your fare, the prices that you pay for daily, weekly, or monthly passes will not change. The new ways to pay for fare in the new system are primarily through 2 different options. One is through the reloadable Copper card, which is a physical smart card. The other is through the Valley Metro app, which we have available today for fare. The way the new system will work is that our riders will load their account with money. Anywhere from $2 up to $150 and then each time they ride they'll tap their Copper card or they'll scan their Valley Metro app. The great part about the new system is that you pay as you go. So you'll pay for each ride until you reach a daily, weekly, or monthly fare and then you won't be charged during that period. another thing as you mentioned, Ricky, we did cover Smart Fare, which is the new system in a previous episode. There's a lot of great information in that episode as well. But that is the basics of the new fare system. The other thing I'll mention is that there still will be an option for a 1-ride paying with cash on the bus or buying a 1-ride at light rail platforms.

Juliana: 02:38

That is important to know. I was going to ask you about that because we do get a lot of questions. You know, are the paper passes going away? How does the shift to Copper cards, mobile and Smart Fare system benefit riders?

Dane: 02:50

Yeah, there's a few benefits to our riders with the new system. The main benefit that I see and I already covered is the pay as you go model. Which means you're only paying each time you ride instead of buying the pass up front. That means, for example, someone who buys a 31-day pass in today's system, they're paying that full price up front, and they're paying that price no matter how much they ride for 31 days. In a new system, they're only paying each time they ride. You're only paying for the trips you take, but you're still going to benefit from the daily, weekly and monthly fare. Some of the other benefits of the new system are that we have new technology that's driving the entire system. So, there are more options to manage and access the fare that you pay as well as your information on your account and your transaction history. There's also more protections in place for our riders. Again, in today's system, if you buy a pass and you lose it, there's really no way to recover the value of the that pass, whereas in the new system, if you use the Valley Metro app, or if you load your Copper card, you have your account balance protected. So the amount that you have on your account, it's not living directly on your phone or on the card itself. It's on an account and if you register your account, that is protected. If you lose your card or you lose your phone, you're able to deactivate that card and get a new one and protect the balance you have. Some other benefits for our riders is that we are replacing all of our fare equipment. So, our fare boxes on buses will be updated. All of the fare machines at our light rail stations are going to be replaced. That process is already underway. And then another of the other benefit of the new system is the availability of our fares. We will have a very large retail network available where riders can purchase a Copper card. They can reload a Copper card. They can even load cash to the mobile app at some locations. And we expect that to be a much larger network of retailers than we have today. So if you combine all of those options for buying and reloading your account, you're really going to have more access to our fare system than you do in today's system.

Juliana: 05:05

Yeah, you're giving riders so many more options. Cash, cards, even Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Dane: 05:11

That's right. So at our fare machines and through our app, you can use Apple or Google Pay, and again, you're buying a Copper card one time and then you're using that same card over and over. So, you don't have to go seek out a pass every time you want to ride. You already have the app or the card. You're set for a very long time and you really just want to make sure that you have value loaded to your account.

Ricky: 05:32

And bringing up the theme about the Copper card and the mobile fare. Now, can riders utilize both, or do I have to choose between either the Copper card or using mobile fare?

Dane: 05:43

That is a very good question and a question that we often get. And in the new system, you do need to choose one or the other. That way, your Smart Fare contributions each time you ride are going to one account. So you do have to make this option between the card or the app. There is an opportunity to switch if you decide one of those is not right for you and you want to make that switch. You will have that option, but you can only have one of those options active at one time.

Juliana: 06:10

So can you manage multiple cards under one account? Like say if you have a family and you have a couple kids that, you know, ride the system, can a mother or father handle the accounts?

Dane: 06:22

Yeah, that's a great question. I think the bigger message there is that we do ask that every rider have their own fare. So, if there was a person that had a couple kids or their spouse was with them, each of them would need to have a card or the app. But you have a good question, Juliana, is managing those accounts can be done under one single account. So, when we first launched the system we won't have that feature, but it will soon be added to the website where a spouse or a parent of multiple kids can could have multiple cards or app accounts under one account, and then they could add value and view the transaction history for those accounts all in one place. So that also makes sure that, you know, there's not a credit card tied to your child's account. If you don't want to do that you can manage their card for them and make sure that they're always ready to ride.

Ricky: 07:14

And Dane, how are our riders able to apply for reduced fare?

Dane: 07:18

So in the new fare system, we've also expanded the options for applying for reduced fare. I do want to take a step back, though, and mention reduced fare is available just like it is today. As I mentioned at the beginning, the pricing is the same as it is today. But one change is that in order to access Smart Fare and all of the fare options, you do have to have a reduced fare account with Valley Metro. So that is a little bit of a change and an adjustment to the system, but we're also making it easier for people to apply. You can actually apply today at valleymetrofares.org. There's an online option to apply. You have to go through a few steps to create an account if you don't already have one. That goes through a process to select how you want to pay your fare. Enter some information, upload your required documentation and then you can submit that pretty quickly through our website. We do also have in-person options available. You can go to the Valley Metro Mobility Center to apply in person. And you can also apply at the Tempe Transit Store. So for individuals who may want to do the in-person option, we still have those available, and we actually plan to add a few more locations in the near future as well. I also will quickly mention that as we launch into the new system, we are expanding the hours of some of those locations to give our riders a little bit more time to transition for reduced fare. So I definitely encourage everyone to check out our website. We'll have information posted, and you'll have more options to apply in person as we roll out the new system.

Juliana: 08:52

That's great that we're giving our riders options because I know a lot of folks, they don't want to go online, or they prefer to do it in person. So having those in-person events is so important.

Ricky: 09:02

I think the website's going to be a big game changer also.

Dane: 09:05

No that's a great point. You know, the new system does have a lot of technology options. Whether it's the cards themselves, the app or the website, but we're still maintaining those in person options, not only to do reduced fare, but also to load your account to manage your account. There are options to go to our retail networks and our transit centers. So we want to make sure we have options available for everyone, no matter what their comfort level is.

Juliana: 09:29

So you touched on this a little bit, but where can a Copper card be purchased?

Dane: 09:34

Once the new system is launched and Copper cards are available, they will be available for purchase online on the website that I mentioned, valleymetrofares.org. That website will have new features added in the new system, including the availability to purchase a Copper card. You will also be able to purchase a Copper card in our retail network. So that's what I mentioned earlier. Hundreds of locations that will be available for our riders to not only purchase a Copper card, but to also reload the Copper card at those locations. The other options would be our fare machines for light rail stations and some of our Park and Rides or transit centers. Those new machines will allow you to purchase a Copper card and also reload value on to it and then any of our in-person transit center windows would also be an option for riders to go buy a card in person and also load value. So, there's a lot of options. Again, I think it's probably more options than we have for today's system with the paper passes. And once you get that Copper card, you'll have a ton of places that you can reload value to it.

Ricky: 10:39

I think it's awesome that we're giving the riders a lot of different places for them to be able to get this Copper card and make the change into this new system. But, how can someone manage their Copper card and what features are going to be at the touch of their hands?

Dane: 10:53

There's actually a lot of great features in the new system, but again, I'm going to take one step back and mention that an account is not required to use the system. So if someone wants to buy a Copper card at Circle K and then reload it there as they go, that is definitely an option. And there is no requirement to create an account or provide an email address. However, there are a lot of benefits to creating an account on our new website. One of those I already mentioned is that your account funds are protected. So if you go get a Copper card, but you don't register it, we don't know who that Copper card belongs to. So there's really not a way to guarantee those funds are protected. But if you create an account, which is really simple, it's just an email and a password and your name, that allows you to protect the funds that are tied to your account. So, if you lose your card, you're able to recover that. The other things that you can do with an account in the new system is that you can save your funding source. So if you are using the website to add money to your account, you can save a credit card and use it each time you need to add money. You can also go look at your transaction history. So, you'll be able to see when you added money to your account, what trips you took, how much you paid, whether or not you reached the Smart Fare daily, weekly, or monthly fare. So there's a lot of visibility into how you're using the system. The other thing that I really like about the new system and a feature that we probably haven't talked about very much is that you will have the option to autoload your account. So if you create an account on the fares website, you can set it up to automatically add money when your account goes below a certain balance. That would mean that you really never have to go in-person to load value onto your account or even think about it if you have that autoload feature set up. Of course, that's optional. It is not required, but that really makes sure that you always have money on your account and you're always ready to ride. The other great feature as a part of that is that you can subscribe and get notifications about your account. So if your account balance is low, or you reached a Smart Fare daily, weekly or monthly maximum, your account can notify you about that as well. But that is also optional.

Juliana: 13:08

Awesome. So loading your Copper card is as easy as loading money into a Starbucks card.

Dane: 13:13

Exactly That's, that's a great comparison. It's very much like, the gift cards that are out there today, just like a Starbucks card. You can use it without ever having to register it anywhere, but you get a lot more value and benefits from it by creating an account, tying it to your account, and then you can add money to it, add other features. It's very similar in that way.

Juliana: 13:32

So here's a question we get a lot. When can we expect the new fare system to go into effect?

Dane: 13:38

I think everyone can probably guess that this will not happen overnight. It is going to take some time to roll out the new system and make sure all of the new features and options are available and working as expected. So we do expect it to launch this summer, and the way that we are approaching the rollout is with a slow or soft rollout of the system. We will start to have different channels come online, like the website, the app will be updated for Smart Fare, the retail locations will change over from the old paper passes to the new Copper cards and that will happen going into the summer, into June our plan is for us to do a little bit of a soft launch, get all of the different options online and then we'll officially launch the new system this summer and really encourage our riders to make that transition over the summer months.

Ricky: 14:28

I think speaking about all these changes has made me really excited to see how everything is going to transpire and actually change. Now, how can our riders learn more about the fare technology modernization part of this project?

Dane: 14:43

Yeah, we have a lot of great resources available on our website valleymetro.org/fare technology is a great page to go for updates about the fare system. We also have an overview of Smart Fare, some frequently asked questions, an overview of all of the changes that are coming and how to prepare and then we also have a lot of outreach events that we are doing ahead of the launch and during the launch of the system. That web page also list all of the events that will be at across the region. In any Valley Metro event from now going forward is probably going to have some part of the fare system incorporated, and then we'll also have specific fare events throughout the summer months as well. One other option to get updates on the new fare system, especially as we get closer to the launch of the system is to sign up for our email list. We do have a fare technology modernization project email list, and that allows you to get updates directly to your inbox, especially when we start to have some of the retail locations, or the website come online. I think that's a great way to get prepared. The other thing that I'll shamelessly plug is that if you don't use the Valley Metro app today, that is a really great option to get a head start on transitioning to the fare system. Even if you don't want to use the app to pay and you want to use a Copper card, the app is a great resource to. provide updates and also plan your trips on transit, especially as we head into the summer months. It gets a little bit warmer. You can use the app to see the location of your bus or train and make sure that you only stand out at the stop as long as you need to. So if you don't have the Valley Metro app, I definitely encourage downloading that as an additional resource.

Juliana: 16:24

Absolutely. We're excited and our riders are so excited. Anything else you'd like to add?

Dane: 16:30

I just want to say that we're really excited as an agency to provide these convenient options and updated ways for our riders to pay and manage their fares. I hope everyone will take advantage of the new features and the cost savings that come with them by using the Copper Card or the Valley Metro app.

Ricky: 16:47

It's cool to see that with fare technology evolving, Valley Metro is evolving to meet the needs of our riders. I can't wait to see those Copper cards in action.

Juliana: 16:56

I agree, Ricky. And like Dane said, if you want to learn more about fare, head to valleymetro.org/faretechnology. That's your one stop shop for all things fare.

Ricky: 17:06

And if you have additional questions, you can also attend a town hall where you can talk to a Valley Metro employee in person and even apply for reduced fare. You can find a complete list of fare town halls at valleymetro.org/fareevents

Juliana: 17:22

If you can't attend, you can also find recordings of our virtual town halls on our YouTube channel. Before we go, we have five copper cards to give away.

Ricky: 17:30

To enter to win, simply email us one thing you learned about the new fare system to podcast@valleymetro.org.

Juliana: 17:39

For a full list of contest rules, please visit valleymetro.org/coppercard. That's it for this episode of Storylines. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Ricky: 17:50

For Valley Metro, I'm Ricky.

Juliana: 17:52

I'm Juliana.

Ricky: 17:53

Thanks for riding with us.

Juliana: 17:55

We'll meet you at the next stop.

Ricky: 17:58

Storylines is produced by Alex Tsotsos and Dane Ryals. Peter Corkery is the executive producer. For Juliana Vasquez- Keating, I'm Ricky Tejada. Thanks for listening.