Money For Nothing...

And your trips for free...
I want my, I want my, I want my trips for free.

LOL, gotta love Dire Straits.

With our new Smart Cards coming out in January - The Eco & College Passes - and the My Card for monthly & discount users, etc, there are other benefits coming as well.
One of those is the ability to use Credit Cards on the Light Rail systems.

More and more I'm hearing customers getting frustrated with the fare box and ticket vending machine's inability to accept credit slash debit cards.

Well, finally you're going to get your wishes.
This Summer the Light Rail ticket vending machines will be updated to accept credit cards.

And that's the extent of what I've heard slash read slash been told.

If you want more information you'll have to call 303.299.CARD and visit the web page for more:

( RTD SMART CARD )

That said, here's my two cents.
And it's actually .275% rather than two cents.

What's the going rate on credit card transactions?
Isn't it like around 3 tenths of a percent of the transaction?

Folks, you remember that RTD is a tax payer supported municipality, right?

If you demand that RTD buy new trains, new buses, build new lines and add new routes, more frequent service, etc etc etc....
You KNOW who has to pay for that, right?

If y'all are asking RTD to start accepting credit cards, you realize that the price of the ride has to increase to reflect at least the increase in cost of providing that service you demanded, right?

RTD doesn't make a profit, so you're asking them to either not raise fares but cut back other services to afford this service or you're going to have to accept the cost increase when they come to the tax payer and ask for an increase in taxes and raise the fares to reflect the increased service demand.

And of course that's just my two cents slash .275%.
I've not heard ANY rumours of fare increases or anything.

I'm just thinking this through.

Personally, I think the entire system should be user supported, riders paying for the service they use, not the tax payer.
But I also think that regular yearly increases, like a nickel or dime each year.
Something that we can all count on so the extra quarter neither surprises nor offends us.
And something RTD can count on to continue to use to increase the services we demand.

Anywho, what I think and what happens in reality are usually far apart but we'll see how this comes to pass.
Get it?
"Comes to...PASS?"
See what I did there?
Jeesh, never mind...lol

As Always, "Welcome aboard, Find your seats,  Put away your Credit Cards - Let's Roll!"