Clipper upgrade glitch rattles Marin, Bay Area transit

The highly anticipated rollout of the upgraded Clipper fare system has misfired, leaving transit agencies and riders in Marin and elsewhere dealing with the repercussions.

The upgrade that began on Dec. 10 was supposed to deliver several new benefits, but instead burdened users with compounding problems. Marin Transit officials said this week that the system glitches have delayed the transition to new cash fare boxes on its buses.

The agency is moving to simple cash fare drop boxes and eliminating cash fare transfers in a move intended to encourage Clipper use. Clipper is a program run by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Cubic Transportation Systems was hired to develop and oversee the upgrade to a cloud-based system.

“The system is not stable enough at this point to push riders to adopt/shift to Clipper and allow us to move forward with the new fare boxes,” said Robert Betts, general manager of Marin Transit, the county’s fixed-route bus provider.

Marin Transit approved its plan to install new fare boxes in 2024. At the time, officials believed that the Clipper upgrade was going to happen that year. The agency needs to upgrade its fare boxes because the equipment used on buses today is out of production and no longer serviceable.

Marin Transit planned to have a six-month education and marketing campaign to give riders time to adopt Clipper cards after the Clipper upgrade launched. The fare box overhaul was supposed to be completed by the end of 2025, Betts said.

“The delays are forcing us to continue support on the legacy fare collection system beyond its useful life, delaying our marketing and outreach campaigns and associated staffing workload, and adding confusion and frustration for our riders,” Betts said.

Betts said riders on the old Clipper platform still need to tag on and tag off buses to be charged the correct fare, while new riders, or those with cards that have been migrated, only need to tag once.

Eliminating cash fare transfers requires a policy update, said Cathleen Sullivan, the agency’s director of planning. Staff plan to set a public hearing in May and recommend adoption of its updated fare policy in June.

Sullivan said she hopes that by that time the Metropolitan Transportation Commission will have an update on when the Clipper system will be fully migrated. Knowing that will enable Marin Transit to set a date for the new cash fare boxes.

The upgraded Clipper system includes discounted interagency transfers; the ability to instantly add and use value on a Clipper card; and the ability for families to manage multiple accounts through an app. Several types of transit pass options will be migrated to the Clipper system as well.

However, the few cardholders who were upgraded ended up in a state of limbo. Many saw their digital account balances and passes disappear. They had trouble loading new value on their cards and were unable to update their accounts. Additionally, several ticket vending machines are malfunctioning throughout the Bay Area.

Last week, the Clipper executive board received an update from Cubic Transportation Systems representatives.

“We have remaining issues that continue to affect riders, frontline staff and operators, and we take those issues seriously,” said Peter Montgomery-Torrellas, the president of Cubic Transportation Systems. “Every customer, every rider who is not having the experience that we want them to have is a real focus for us.”

Passengers with discounted passes, including income-based discounts and youth and senior passes, were among the first to be upgraded. They are also the most affected by the system failure, said Denis Mulligan, general manager of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, which operates Golden Gate Transit buses and Golden Gate Ferry.

“Some of them lost functionality on their accounts, some of the accounts were frozen,” said Mulligan, a member of the Clipper executive board.

Mulligan said those riders faced disruptions to routine transit trips for work, appointments and social outings.

“They lost the ability to live their lives like they normally do,” he said.

The rest of Clipper users were going to be upgraded in “batch” migrations to be completed by March. Fewer than 10% of the 15 million Clipper cards have been upgraded.

A tap-and-ride feature that enables riders to pay for the fare with credit cards, debit cards and mobile wallets is working as planned. Because of the Clipper account issues, transit operators in some cases are encouraging riders to take advantage of this feature.

Julia Gonzalez, spokesperson for Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, said the train is not immune to the issues.

“Next generation Clipper is an important, long-awaited upgrade that will make paying fares easier and more flexible across the Bay Area,” she said in an email. “SMART, along with transit agencies across the region, is working closely with MTC and the Clipper team as the program is implemented to help address early issues and support improvements so riders can pay fares smoothly and reliably across the regional transit network.”

John Goodwin, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said Cubic has been adding server capacity and performing backend updates to slowly mend the errors. Part of that process involves locating and retrieving value for cardholders whose money was severed from their accounts in the migration.

“We’re making headway, and no one is losing their money,” Goodwin said. “It’s just not immediately available and visible, which is completely unacceptable.”

Goodwin said staff plan to present an update to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission board on March 25.