RabbitPay card (Image courtest of Rabbittransit)
Your morning bus ride may soon get a little easier.
This summer, Rabbittransit is planning to roll out a new fare collection system for its Harrisburg fleet.
The system will offer users the ability to pay for rides with either physical “RabbitPay”cards or their phone, by using a new mobile app. They will be able to tap either at orange terminals—located at the fare station just inside buses—to pay.
According to the public transportation provider’s executive director, Richard Farr, the new system will be account-based, allowing riders to purchase fares or fare passes online as well as at ticket vending machines.
The account-based system also will offer riders more security, in that if they lose their physical RabbitPay card, or cash reserved for their fare, they will still be able to pay for a ticket through their phone.
“Very rarely does someone lose their phone,” said Farr.
Farr acknowledged that Rabbittransit’s current mobile app has deficiencies that the new system seeks to improve upon—like having to launch the app before the bus comes because it takes a while to load. Plus, he added, “if you decide not to ride after you activated it, you’ve lost the ride.”
By comparison, the new system will only take fares off of users’ accounts if they touch the orange payment terminal inside the bus.
The new system seeks to improve upon Rabbittransit’s current card system, wherein if users bend or lose their card, they lose their fare.
“With the account-based system, if you lose your card, you don’t lose your rides,” Farr said.
Users will still be able to buy any pass packs they’ve become accustomed to on this system. It will also feature “fare capping”—a system allowing riders to pay as they go through single-ride fares until they reach the price of a larger pass.
Farr said Rabbittransit plans to send street teams out across Harrisburg in mid-July to help its users sign up for and learn to use the new system.
All riders will get a free RabbitPay card once, he said. If they lose it, they will have to pay $3.50 to replace it.
Farr emphasized Rabbittransit is looking to move away from cash fare payments, although it will always accept them.
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