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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Translink on SF Muni - Looking for Testers (Victims)


Attention Muni victims! If you are a Translink cardholder, the time is now to sign-up for the soft launch testing of the Translink program.

Hmmm... sounds enticing, trying out a system that's been out for almost seven years to see if it finally works.

I noticed this on the Translink website, where the second announcement says that:

"Muni is inviting a limited number of customers to participate in trial use of TransLink."

So if you are interested in becoming a sucker... ahem... a victim... ahem, a tester to see if it all works well, it's a good time to have some fun.

I'm wondering, is the fares coming out of our own pockets, or will the SFMTA and Translink give victims... volunteers Translink e-cash to try this out?

To register for the dry run program, visit Translink.org and in the announcements section, wait for the second piece of news to show-up and click on the link. Or you can register directly here (I don't know why SFMTA is using Survey Monkey).

Unfortunately, I'm not going to sign-up for this test run, I'm a little fed-up with Muni to be spending time taking surveys on how's the program running. Just get the damn program running, there's no test runs really needed since nearly 95% are operational. Plus, I think they know who I am... I put Muni in a chokehold when I caught them red handed on camera.

UPDATE: Hot off the news wire, KGO-TV has this report with video.
It seems that the Muni employees are testing it out first, then the public volunteers after that. No word yet on an official rollout, but bad news is the testing will continue into the next year (damn damn damn damn damn).

3 comments:

murphstahoe said...

If I get on one bus, and it works, then I want to go underground, but the fare reader isn't there or working, do I have to pay, since they won't give me a paper transfer when I pay with translink?

Akit said...

Odds are that you would pay for the fare.

Since the program is not in full rollout and the public testing has not been done yet, if something goes wrong and you get ticketed for fare evasion, Muni will not likely cover your back and reverse your ticket. It is better to just not use Translink on Muni at all until they are ready for full operational status.

Anonymous said...

You might notice on the translink website you can now sign up for a muni monthly pass!