Good news about TAP cards, but (Source: MetroRiderLA)

Good news about TAP cards, but … | MetroRiderLA

Good news about TAP cards, but …
Contributed by Wad on August 6th, 2009 at 3:51 am

Compass fare card reader at a Trolley station



Photo by Yours Truly. It can be seen on the MetroRiderLA Flickr pool.


The good news: Metro’s TAP cards are so versatile, they work on more than a dozen transit agencies in L.A. County …

… and San Diego County!!!

This was one of the few things I experimented with on my day trip to America’s Finest City, at least the finest city in San Diego County.

Well, it should be no surprise. Cubic is based in San Diego, and it outfitted the Metropolitan Transit System with the same fare infrastructure as TAP — only it’s called Compass down there.

I tried a little experiment. I found one of the newer ticket vending machines identical to the Metro second-generation devices and held up the TAP card to charge it as a Compass card in the same way a TAP would be loaded. And the TVM accepted it! It gave the option of buying a day, weekly or monthly pass. San Diego, like L.A., does not have stored value fully implemented. But this confirms the L.A. cards talk to the San Diego machines.

The bad news: I didn’t actually blow $5 on a pass loaded to an L.A. TAP card. I still bought the paper pass. I also asked an MTS ambassador if I would be allowed to use L.A. media to pay for San Diego fares.

She said she wasn’t sure, so the safe answer is not to do it. San Diego has its own Compass-branded cards that are valid, and while the machines can technically “interface,” fare inspectors can still cite or arrest you for evasion and/or fraud.

This brings me to the closing disclaimer: The information contained in the post herein is strictly informational. If MetroRiders go down to San Diego for joyriding and use TAP cards, MetroRiderLA does not license or endorse this behavior nor will it or any of its authors or administrators be held liable for any fines or criminal actions brought upon you.