Metro's little card that couldn't

06:37 PM CST on Tuesday, January 18, 2005

By Doug Miller / 11 News

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An $8 million contract for a new fare-paying system for Metro is more than a year behind schedule.

Metro smart cards might have seemed like a good idea, but Metro has now declared a contractor in default over the card controversy.

If you want to ride Metro, you've got to pay the price.

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The card that was supposed to streamline fare payments isn't working as it should be, according to Metro.

For most people, that means buying a ticket, but Metro thought it had found a better idea.

The people who work on Metro's fare boxes have spent a lot of time working on the smart card.

"It's a value card. It's a stored value card. That's what it is," says Metro Electronic Maintenance Chief Derrick Blount.

Fareboxes are supposed to treat smart cards like money, but all too often, nothing happens. "Yeah, it crashed," says Blount as the machine doesn't read his smart card.

That's just one of the reasons Metro riders still haven't seen smart cards on the streets of Houston.

If you tried to board a Metro bus using one of the smart cards, Metro figures there's about five percent chance it just wouldn't work. And when you consider how many people ride buses around Houston every day, that adds up to about 3,000 failures every day.

"We have spent $4 million so far. We have stopped paying," says Metro President & CEO Frank Wilson.

Now, Metro officials say the California contractor behind this technology hasn't delivered what it promised.

"We sent a notice of default to Cubic Transportation Systems ostensibly for failing to deliver a complete and timely smart card system," says Wilson.

The contractor, Cubic Corporation, released a written statement saying in part, "If there are deficiencies, Cubic will work cooperatively and diligently with Houston Metro to correct these problems".

Regardless of who is at fault, it seems Metro's roll out of the smart card is still a long way down the road.