Clipper Card and Tagging Off on Caltrain

[SMS]

I let my daughter use my Clipper Card in December on Caltrain. Then when
I went to use it on Sunday it inexplicably had a negative balance.

She said that she did not see any place on the train to scan the card.
I've not used Caltrain with the Clipper Card yet. Where do you scan off?
Is it on the train or somewhere in the station?

I called Clipper customer service and they adjusted the balance. I think
I was being charged for a trip to Gilroy, $12+

[Jimmy]

SMS <scharf.ste...@geemail.com> wrote:
> She said that she did not see any place on the train to scan the card.
> I've not used Caltrain with the Clipper Card yet. Where do you scan off?
> Is it on the train or somewhere in the station?

http://www.caltrain.com/Fares/howtobuy/clipper/Clipper_on_Caltrain_FAQ.html

It looks like you tag at the stations.

That fare policy is a real piece of work. Besides its ridiculous
length and complexity, it has these gems:

"Why do I have to have a minimum of $1.25 in cash on my Clipper card?
It's the way the system was configured to work in conjunction with a
negative balance limit. If you forget to tag off, the highest fare
between all zones is charged and you must have this amount on the card
as cash. Since the Clipper card has a maximum negative amount and the
maximum zones exceed that amount, an additional $1.25 is required. "

Software should work for you, not the other way around.

"What if I want to ride beyond the zones on my Monthly Pass or 8-
ride?
With a Monthly Pass, you need to purchase a paper Zone Upgrade ticket
from the ticket vending machine. "

versus

"After the initial tags to load my Monthly Pass, should I continue to
tag?
No, in fact you shouldn't tag your card unless you're traveling
outside the zones on the pass and choose not to buy a paper Zone
Upgrade. (The full cost will come from the card’s stored cash.)"

So you can't extend your trip past the zones of your pass using
Clipper cash. Except that you can.

"If you buy the next month’s pass during the current month, Clipper
will recognize the current pass. You need to wait to tag on and off
for the month when the pass is valid (unless purchased through a
retail vendor or Add-Value Machien)."

Are they *trying* to create huge lines on the first of the month? Did
they think of all the ways monthly subscription passengers could take
care of this silly task ahead of time, and make sure the software
couldn't handle them?

"Clipper will deduct a ride from the 8-ride Ticket only if the trip
matches the zones on the ticket, i.e. from Zone 1 to Zone 3. If the
trip is from Zone 1 to Zone 2, Clipper will deduct cash from the
card."

Ok, that saves you some money, since (for example) a four-zone one-way
is cheaper than 1/8 of a five-zone 8-trip. But what if you don't have
the cash on your card, or you need to use up your 8-trip before it
expires?

Jimmy

[Peter Lawrence]

Yes, using a Clipper Card can be confusing if you don't read up how to use
it on transit agency you're going to use.

In regards to Caltrain, for single ride or 8-ride tickets one has to tag-on
at the station their board the train and then to remember to tag-off at the
station they detrain. One tags-on and tags-off at the Clipper card readers
located on the train platforms at each Caltrain station (they're not located
inside passenger cards themselves.

In other words, it's more similar to the way one uses a Clipper Card on BART
versus how one uses a Clipper Card on Muni or on the VTA.


- Peter

[SMS]

Except on BART you can't exit the system without scanning (and having
enough money on your card).

[Peter Lawrence]

On 2/6/13 7:28 AM, SMS wrote:
> On 2/6/2013 12:15 AM, Peter Lawrence wrote:
>> On 2/5/13 12:19 PM, SMS wrote:
>>>
>>> I let my daughter use my Clipper Card in December on Caltrain. Then
>>> when I
>>> went to use it on Sunday it inexplicably had a negative balance.
>>>
>>> She said that she did not see any place on the train to scan the card.
>>> I've
>>> not used Caltrain with the Clipper Card yet. Where do you scan off? Is
>>> it on
>>> the train or somewhere in the station?
>>>
>>> I called Clipper customer service and they adjusted the balance. I
>>> think I
>>> was being charged for a trip to Gilroy, $12+
>>
>> Yes, using a Clipper Card can be confusing if you don't read up how to
>> use it on transit agency you're going to use.
>>
>> In regards to Caltrain, for single ride or 8-ride tickets one has to
>> tag-on at the station their board the train and then to remember to
>> tag-off at the station they detrain. One tags-on and tags-off at the
>> Clipper card readers located on the train platforms at each Caltrain

>> station (they're not located inside passenger car themselves).

>>
>> In other words, it's more similar to the way one uses a Clipper Card on
>> BART versus how one uses a Clipper Card on Muni or on the VTA.
>
> Except on BART you can't exit the system without scanning (and having enough
> money on your card).

Nor on BART can you board the train without scanning. :)

On Caltrain, one needs to remember to do both.

(And I as a regular Caltrain user have forgotten twice to tag off. Both
times because when I detrained, my parked car was parked right in front of
me so I absentmindedly just went to my car and drove off instead walking to
the Clipper Card reader to tag off. Oops! Both times I got a refund from
Clipper Card customer service when I realized my mistake the next day.)



- Peter

[Kenneth M. Lin]

That happened to me when I first used Caltrain. The slogan "tag on and tag
off" is quite vague and I had no ideas what exactly they meant. The tagging
"stand" is usually in the middle of the platform and since most exits are
placed at the both end of the platform, I didn't realize that it existed at
all the first few days.

And the scary thing is that if you don't tag off when you get off the train,
they deduct the maximum amount they possibly can. That is, they assume that
you took the train all the way to Gilroy.

To make matter worse, I got on at Millbrae and they have a non-working
tagging stand (just a stand with no machine on top at the top of the stairs
and once I saw that I got even more confused.

"SMS" wrote in message news:51116960$0$80120$742e...@news.sonic.net...

[Jimmy]

"Kenneth M. Lin" <kenneth_m_...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> That happened to me when I first used Caltrain.  The slogan "tag on and tag
> off" is quite vague and I had no ideas what exactly they meant.  The tagging
> "stand" is usually in the middle of the platform and since most exits are
> placed at the both end of the platform, I didn't realize that it existed at
> all the first few days.

That's rather stupid. There should be a reader at every exit. Are
they trying to waste people's time, and cause bunching in certain
parts of the train?

Jimmy

[Peter Lawrence]

On 2/27/13 4:17 PM, Jimmy wrote:
>
> That's rather stupid. There should be a reader at every exit.

One would think.

I think Caltrain was trying to economize on the amount of card readers they
wanted to install. The California Avenue Caltrain station was particularly
bad at first with only a single Clipper Card read at the far end of the
Southbound platform. (They have since installed a couple of more card
readers on that platform.)

The other problem is that many Caltrain stations don't have any sort of
clearly define "exits" because often at least one of the train platforms
will be adjacent to an open surface parking lot. So it would be easy for a
passenger to forget to tag off by heading directly to their parked car.


- Peter