Did you know that a round trip ticket bought at a Link light rail station is actually a day pass for the fare zone purchased, good for as many rides as you can fit into the current calendar day?
Riding the Link to the mayor’s press conference yesterday I bought a roundtrip ticket between Othello and downtown, and happened to run into one of the Sound Transit inspection teams while on the train. I flashed my ticket, and that was that, and apparently none of the other passengers on the roughly half-full train had any problems either. But it got me thinking.
My ticket had the date and the $2.00 zone value printed boldly on the card, with “Adult $4.00” in smaller print along with the names of the starting and destination stations. But there was no time stamp or expiration printed anywhere on the card… and really, how could there be? I might return any time, and the same ticket was issued as valid fare in both directions. And since the ticket is never punched, scanned or collected, I could use it multiple times throughout the day, getting on and off at various stations within the purchased zone.
So I asked folks at Sound Transit whether I had discovered a flaw in their fare system, and was flatly told no. They don’t seem to advertise it, but these tickets are day passes; in fact, it says “Puget Pass” on the front of the ticket, and clearly states on the back: “Pass is valid during the day(s)/week(s/month(s)/year(s) shown.” Furthermore, it’s valid for face value service throughout the region, on Community Transit, Sound Transit, Pierce Transit, Metro and Sound Transit. In that sense it’s even better than a bus transfer; one can ride the light rail, and then use the same ticket repeatedly throughout the region’s bus and commuter rail system, paying the difference between the face value and the fare where need be.
At least through the end of the year.
When I asked why anybody would use an Orca Card, which dings you for every boarding, rather than an all-day Puget Pass, I was told that a) few commuters take more than a single roundtrip ride a day; and b) come January, paper tickets and bus transfers would no longer be accepted as valid transfers, while the Orca Card would continue to seamlessly operate as such.
Fair enough. But for the moment, these roundtrip tickets are one helluva bargain, and will still be a pretty damn good deal after the first of the year, especially for folks looking to explore the neighborhoods along the Link line.
I had discovered that, too. Though kudos to you to verify that it wasn’t a flaw; I had just decided to keep it to myself for now in case they changed it.
The biggest problem with the awesome deal of the $4 day pass is that you need to start your journey at a light rail station. If you need to take a bus to the light rail, then you’re going to need a transfer from the bus in order to pay a total of $4. However, the transfer will expire because it is dated.
What a mess! The Metro website advertises $4 regional day passes on weekends, and now you point out that you can get a version of this on weekdays too, but only at Link stations. Yet if you want to take just a single off-peak Link ride, it’s actually 25 cents cheaper if you buy a $1.75 off-peak ticket on a Metro bus and then use the free transfer on Link. These inconsistencies aren’t really worth worrying about — few people will bother with them and I don’t begrudge those folks the savings — but they make the “system” look fragmented.
Bruce @2,
I think, rather than this being an intentional mess, it is part of a planned transition intended to introduce light rail, and gradually ease commuters into the Orca Card world. The huge advantage to Orca is that it eliminates lines at ticket machines and dramatically reduces boarding on times on buses.
Why do some city’s or county’s public transit systems offer weekday Day Passes, and others, like Metro, does not?
I’d like to take a ride on light rail but I can’t think of anywhere it goes that I want to go to. And it’s a long hop from my hole to a station. So I guess I’ll never ride it.
@5
It goes to the black part of town. Why don’t you want to go there? You some kind of racist or something?
@6 No, Einstein. It’s because it’s about five miles from Roger’s burrow to the northern terminus of the line. If he wants to go to “that part of town”, he can hop about two blocks and catch the #48 bus.
Sound Transit and Metro seem to have been pretty quiet about apparently having to refund a pretty large amount of money to people who got Orca cards early on and discovered that due to “software problem”, their balances were erased if they failed to use their cards within 30 days.
Actually there are some pretty good restaurants near most of the stations. I’ve gone down to Tammy Bakery and Tacos Al Aserdo near the Othello station several times since Link opened. There are a number of restaurants that look good in Columbia City though I’ve only made it to the Columbia City Ale House and Tutta Bella so far.
Mt. Baker has a couple of good Vietnamese places and the Phillies shop which I’m told is the closest thing to a real cheesesteak you will find in Seattle (hey Goldy could you confirm?).
Beacon Hill has a number of restaurants as well though I’ve only tried a couple of Filipio places so far.
o.k. – when I was a cooking serf in boston, 20 years ago in my 20’s, I lived about 5 miles from downtown in allston-brighton.
IF I drove downtown, it cost about $15 a day to park**. If I took the rattler to work, I cost me about a buck – a buck each way.
driving took about 15 to 20 minutes IF the crap crap traffic was just 2*crap traffic, NOT 5* crap. the rattler took about … 15 or 20 minutes!
to go from home in ballard to work off of rainier and MLK south of I-90 takes appx. an hour, each way. I costs … 4 or 5 dollars? the car trip costs me 20 mins. in the morning and 30 in the afternoon, and a gallon or less of gas.
here is MY transportation / housing / education SOLUTION.
IF you work in 1 of those departments, AND
make over $50000 a year, AND
don’t have face to face contact with your customers, AND
manage 2 or more people, AND
have been doing management for 2 or more years
THEN YOU’RE FIRED.
Replacements must come from internal, AND
must have REAL service fixes to implement in 1 to 3 months, or they’re fired.
the dithering and the excuses and the consultants and the excuses are ONLY acceptable to the ruling classes of queen anne and capitol hill … who ‘support’ the services, don’t use ’em, make their living from them, and are ONLY successful at staying in charge.
rmm.