Clipper� Breaks Records, Spreads Its Sails
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A surge in back-to-school ridership pushed Clipper usage past the half-million daily rides mark.
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September has been a banner month for the Clipper� card, with an announcement that daily usage is now topping 500,000, and an MTC committee voting to move forward with equipping the San Francisco Bay Ferry system (operated by the Water Emergency Transportation Authority, or WETA) with Clipper readers.
Clipper ridership is now eight times higher than it was when MTC's electronic transit fare payment system transitioned to Clipper in June of 2010. A surge in back-to-school ridership among Bay Area youths helped to push daily usage past the half-million mark in late August and early September. Among the seven transit operators currently collecting fares with Clipper, San Francisco Muni is in the lead, with more than 300,000 daily boardings using Clipper -- nearly half the agency's daily boardings. And regionwide, roughly one in three transit rides is now made with Clipper. Read more here.
Besides Muni, other charter Clipper systems are AC Transit, BART, Caltrain, SamTrans, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and Golden Gate Bus & Ferry. Because WETA is funding the acquisition of Clipper equipment and installation in full, it is stepping to the head of the line of transit operators waiting to join the seven that already are collecting fares with the all-in-one transit fare card. Strategies for expanding Clipper to the region's remaining 20 bus and rail operators were discussed at MTC's September 9 Operations Committee meeting.
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