Update: Golden Gate Ferry Makes Changes after Akit's Report

In a previous blog entry in July, I mentioned that Blue & Gold Fleet passengers boarding the ferry at Sausalito was paying for the wrong boat. This was due to a change in Golden Gate Ferry's policies where the trip from Sausalito to San Francisco (Ferry Building) changed from pay on board the boat (give ticket upon exit), to a prepaid system. This caused confusion as Blue & Gold's policy is to pay on the boat and surrender the ticket upon exiting. Due to all the confusion in policies, there were people paying Golden Gate, tagged their paper Clipper card upon entry, and boarded the Blue & Gold boat not realizing they'll have to pay an extra $10.50 to the cashier on the boat because they paid for the wrong one.

Just a couple of days ago, I took the Golden Gate's Sausalito ferry for a nice day trip and I noticed some drastic changes at the Sausalito dock:

1. The Clipper card readers at the dock's gate is now locked-out unless if a Golden Gate employee tags a special Clipper card to activate the readers. This means that if a Blue & Gold passenger accidentally buys a Golden Gate ticket, at least their ticket will still have a ride stored on it for a future trip.
2. The huge time table at the dock clearly tells passengers how to pay for their ferry ride back to San Francisco.
3. Golden Gate Ferry honors the Blue & Gold Fleet's paper vouchers to those who rented a bicycle from one of the vendors around Fisherman's Wharf.

Still, they can make one improvement that's good for everyone: The automated machines at the Sausalito dock should ask passengers what ferry they plan to take to make sure people don't buy the wrong ticket. It's an improvement in the right direction, but I feel that both ferry companies can always strive to do better.

On a final note, I found out the transfer policy for Golden Gate & Muni passengers has changed. The new benefit, it allows Muni pass users to save 50 cents on their boat ride.

The old policy (which is similar to BART-Muni transfer):

1. Using a Clipper card, you exit Golden Gate Ferry and board Muni and receive a 50 cent discount if used within 90 minutes. No credit/discount for Muni pass users.
   
2. For the return trip to Golden Gate within 24 hours, tagging the same Clipper card on Muni receives a 50 cent discount on the Muni ride. No credit/discount for Muni pass users.
   

The new policy:

1. Using a Clipper card, you exit Golden Gate Ferry and ride Muni to receive a 50 cent discount within 90 minutes. (same policy as #1 above). There's no credit/discount for Muni pass users.
   
2. For the return trip to Golden Gate, you don't get the discount for Muni, but by taking Muni, your card gets encoded and you get a 50 cent discount on the ferry boat ride. This means no more 24-hour limit rule (especially great for commuters that doesn't ride on weekends). This even works if you have a Muni pass, you still save 50 cents on the ferry boat ride.
   

Golden Gate Ferry to Automate Ticket Sales

Golden Gate Ferry is in the beginning stages to automate the ticketing system at all its locations by utilizing self-service ticketing machines able to handle Clipper cards and plans to have it ready for full public use sometime this year.

At the SF Ferry Terminal, work has already been done to remove the self-service Clipper add value machines and they plan to install twelve self-service ticketing machines (six at SF, four at Larkspur, and two at Sausalito) in March. They've also installed new Clipper card readers at the Sausalito terminal just beyond the metal security gates.

In the end, the four million dollar investment split by "Regional Measure Two" funds us voters approved, and the other half from the Bridge District will be paying for this entire process. They estimate the cost savings at $6.2 million in ten years, and $2.6 million in its first five. Sadly, this would also drop out seven full-time positions at Golden Gate Ferry as they don't need to have people staff the ticketing booth and the sales counter on-board the Sausalito ferry.

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Akit's Analysis & Opinion:
But while Golden Gate is going through with this process, are they really going to save millions in a matter of just five years? I have my doubts about this.

The interesting situation is the prices they charge for one-way rides on the the ferry system:

• Cash paying adults pay $8.25 regardless of what ferry is taken.
• Clipper card adults pay $4.85 for the Sausalito ferry (41.2% discount versus cash).
• Clipper card adults pay $5.70 for the Larkspur ferry (30.9% discount versus cash).

As you have noticed, Clipper card customers pay drastically less than their cash paying counterparts and that's because they dropped the commuter ticket books in favor of all passengers with electronic farecards gets the discount automatically. No transit agency in the Bay Area offers a 30% to 41% discount, and not even BART is close with their high value tickets. The people who pay the $8.25 cash fare are typically tourists and people without Clipper cards on a leisurely visit, and most of the time the higher income comes from the weekend cruises.

If Golden Gate Ferry follows through and installs these automated machines, I'm betting they may lose money in fare revenue because while the machines can sell full price single and round-trip rides, those machines will also be selling Clipper cards (as per their website: first paragraph, second to last sentence). By offering more ease to get Clipper cards and spreading the publicly known "secret" about the steep discounts, would automation be truly beneficial to the agency?

If tourists and occasional riders are smart, they'll buy a new free plastic Clipper card with just enough e-cash value for a round trip on the Sausalito ferry, save $6.80, and dump the plastic card (valued at $2.11) in the trash. Even if Clipper charged a $5 new card issuance fee on top of the ferry fare (as early as June 2011), people will still save $1.80 on their boat fare.

Muni might also lose some money too as more people can take advantage of the inter-agency transfer agreement allows Clipper card only passengers exiting Golden Gate Ferry a 50 cent discount on their next Muni ride within one hour.

I'm not against the Golden Gate's plans to automate and add more Clipper add value locations (though it would be sad some people may lose their jobs); but if they are going to have automated machines that can spit out new Clipper cards and charge up to 40 percent less than paying the single ride fare, why not just lower the cash only fare to the same fare Clipper card customers pay every single day? It only seems fair.

I wonder how many tourists today realized they could get a free Clipper card at the Golden Gate Ferry or Bay Crossings booths, add less than $10, and save a ton of money? Even a tour company realized the massive cost savings and ordered a bulk of Clipper/TransLink cards to give to every single person in their group tours that visits Sausalito every weekend.

I don't know how Golden Gate Ferry can offer such deep discounts, but it is totally worth the savings to take a leisurely ride to Sausalito and spend the savings on a nice lunch. Since Golden Gate offered this automatic discount program for nearly a decade (GGT and GGF was one of the first agencies under TransLink/Clipper), I wonder if they actually had an increase in ridership to make-up for the discounted rides, and eliminating the production and distribution of their ticketing books.

Akit's Furlough Adventure #1 - Sausalito

You voted for it, and you get it folks... I went out to Sausalito today on my first furlough day, Friday, August 14, 2009.

Let's go on the furlough adventure!

I arrived at the Ferry Building too early, so I sat down and consumed some Peets coffee while waiting for the right time to walk down to the Golden Gate Ferry terminal.

I boarded the Golden Gate Ferry using my Translink card and saving a bundle, while those other folks were paying nearly double for the 30 minute ride to Sausalito. Suckers...

The ride on the M.V. Marin is very comfortable, especially since Golden Gate Transit refurbished the ferry boat with cushioned seats, tons of room for bicycles, and a special area that disallows cell phone use.

With the weather just right, clear skies, and the sun bright, this furlough day was going to go well. There's a lot of shopping in Sausalito, very nice art galleries, and very cozy places to eat with great views. Here's a few highlights of where I visited:

Munchie's Candies... the salt water taffy is so soft! I got about $4.75 worth of mostly salt water taffy, and a small bag of sour apple gummy rings.

For lunch, I ate a "San Francisco Club" sandwich at the Venice deli. The sandwich had roast beef, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and mayo on a locally baked sourdough roll. I had a nice chat with the guy who made my sandwich and rung it up. I mentioned about my mandatory furlough at my SF State job, and he mentioned his daughter is going to SF State to major in Ethnic Studies and was disappointed about the library construction on the campus. Luckily, I graduated at the right time, just before the library closed.

(I already ate half of this really tasty sandwich)

So after spending a few hours baking in the sun, looking at all the shops, and eating a tasty sandwich, it was time to return to the city. I hopped back on the Golden Gate Ferry to the Ferry Terminal with my Translink card and took BART with my Translink card home.

Want to view all 54 photos? See the slideshow below:

Akit's next furlough adventure #2 is coming this Monday, August 17th. The Rockridge district in Oakland is the popular choice right now, but if BART's unions go on strike on that day, I can't go to that destination. You can still vote for Rockridge on the left side of Akit's Complaint Department, but there's no guarantee. I may also take a suggestion from a previous commenter to counter picket the BART strike to "get those union folks' butts back to work!"