Progress on Translink

Rachel Gordon, possibly the best reporter left at the Comical Chronicle, reports today that BART has finally set the date when it will begin accepting Translink cards at its fare gates. That date is early June, according to Gordon, although it's not 100% clear to me whether this represents the start of a testing phase or the full implementation. In either case, the first people to use Translink will be 1,000 regular users of BART's own EZ Rider card.

I've had a Translink card for over a year and highly recommend it. I don't put my Fast Pass on it because I'm hesitant to give up the reliability of that paper copy, but it's been worth its weight in exact change several times. I've used it to catch an all-nighter bus across the bay after BART has gone to sleep (why the Bay Area's most under-funded transit agency is the only one crossing the water at 2am - and why it was the first to implement Translink - is a great question) and I've also used it to pay for friends when we catch a bus on a whim.

Translink really allows for greater flexibility in my transit usage, and I hope BART's rollout is successful.