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18 January 2005
Metro stops paying smart card developer
Metro has stopped paying the company who was supposed to deliver a working smart card fare system:
"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.
This has been going on for a while now. Cubic was supposed to deliver a functioning stored-value card system when the light rail opened. Back in November, Metro hired a consultant to oversee Cubic, and perhaps the decision to stop paying Cubic is the result of the consultant's oversight work.
Hopefully Metro will be able to pursue Cubic to either fix the system that should have been working a year ago, or get back some of the $4 million Metro has already paid for the unfunctioning mess it is currently stuck with.
UPDATE: The Chronicle has more on this story.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/18/05 07:32 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
12 April 2005
City should be wary of Cubic parking meters
I'm sure everyone is aware that Houston is trying out some new parking meters downtown, but there was one interesting bit of information at the end of Lucas Wall's story that really should have received more attention:
Each demonstration meter is connected to the Internet via a wireless network. That will allow the meters to instantly process credit card transactions. Lewis said a critical piece of the evaluation will be how well each vendor's network performs.
Cubic Parking System, with meters on Preston between Main and Fannin, has connected its equipment to headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia. The system can send an alert whenever a machine experiences a problem and a local technician can be dispatched. The solar-powered machines accept cash and credit cards.
That's the same Cubic that's in hot water because it never delivered a working "smart card" system to Metro.
Why didn't Wall point that out?
And just for fun, check out this press release on Cubic's website:
Cubic Awarded $11.3 Million Contract to Provide New Smart Card-Based Fare Collection System to PATCO
Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corporation (AMEX:CUB), has been awarded an $11.3 million contract for design and integration of a new multi-modal contactless smart card-based automated fare collection system that will link rail and parking services for the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), a subsidiary of the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA).
I hope someone from Metro calls someone from PATCO to tell them how well Houston's "smart card" system is working.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ Cubic parking meters"> 04/12/05 12:50 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (4)
19 November 2004
Metro still waiting for working "smart card" system
The story in the Chronicle this morning about Metro hiring a consultant to monitor a contractor who has yet to deliver the "smart card" system, is humorous, in a sad, wasting-more-taxpayer-dollars kind of way:
The Metro board voted Thursday to spend up to $100,000 on a consultant to oversee a contractor that has yet to implement a system that would allow bus and rail riders to buy fares with a "smart card."
San Diego-based Cubic Corp. was supposed to have the card system ready when Metro's 7.5-mile light rail line opened Jan. 1. But nearly a year later, the fare-buying system still is not functional.
The board of directors authorized hiring LCL Advisors, whose clients have included the Port Authority of New York and the New Jersey toll roads system, to monitor Cubic Corp.'s work. LCL will be paid $150 an hour, plus expenses, up to $100,000.
Metropolitan Transit Authority Vice President John Sedlak said the company and its principal consultant Richard J. Lobron will "assess the work activity" of Cubic and help test the system's accuracy.
Sedlak said Metro no longer has an expected date for the cards to be in use, "and that is one of the reasons why we're bringing a consultant in."
Metro awarded Cubic an $8 million contract in 2002 to develop and provide the fare collection system.
Metro's not exactly rolling in the dough these days, thanks to the shiny choo choo, in spite of the fact that we are told Metro is always looking for the best use of taxpayer money. We see bus routes being cut right and left to help offset Metro funding problems. And KTRK-13 says there is some question about Metro's bus maintenance. We certainly hope there is some clause in the contract with Cubic Corp. that will allow Metro to recoup some of that $8 million, at the very least to repay the cost of hiring a babysitter.
Then there is this sentence, which is icing on the cake, so to speak:
A Cubic spokeswoman said she was not aware of problems with the system in Houston.
The "smart card" system is not functional a year after it was supposed to be implemented, and Cubic Corp. is unaware of any problems. It's absurd.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/19/04 05:41 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
18 January 2006
Tomorrow is Metro board meeting day
Metro will be holding board meetings tomorrow, which means today we get a hint of what will be discussed. The agendas make for some interesting reading. Let's dive in:
4. Expression of METRO's support for high capacity transit in the US-290 Corridor
Backers of high capacity transit in the US-290 Corridor will be relieved to have Metro's expression of support.
2. Approval of modification to guidelines for Public Comments
Hopefully Public Comment guidelines won't get more restrictive than they already seem to be.
* Human Resources
* Diversity
Because diversity IS beauty!
The Cubic nightmare marches on.
Apparently Metro's board will not be discussing the latest round of service cuts/adjustments, contrary to the public meeting promise Metro made last year.
Happy meetings, Royko! Let us know how the public commenting went.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/18/06 09:44 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
09 May 2005
Twin Cities Metro can't get a working "smart card" system from Cubic Corp.
Cubic Corp, which has failed to deliver a working "smart card" system for Metro and is being sued by Metro, has also failed to deliver a functional "smart card" system for the Twin Cities Metro Transit agency:
It's called the Go-To Card and it was supposed to revolutionize the way people paid for bus and light-rail rides in the Twin Cities. Now 20 months overdue, the only thing that has been revolutionized is Metro Transit's prediction of when it will work.
[snip]
The new system that works like a credit card should allow for quicker boarding, convenience for regular riders and better coordination between bus and light-rail fares.
But nearly everything has gone wrong during the testing:
• A central computer that coordinates the monetary transactions so riders can use the Go-To Card failed repeatedly to work or accurately record transactions.
• The football-shaped readers on buses were not reading the card and emitted an annoying beeping sound.
• Ticket vending machines for light rail, which were included with the Go-To Card project, frequently jammed or deducted money from riders' credit cards but didn't provide a ticket.
The company that signed a $16.5 million contract to develop the system has promised that the glitches will be worked out and the system ready to go by July 1. But Metropolitan Council officials say they've heard it before, and the company is now facing a legal battle with Houston's transit agency for not delivering a similar system.
Houston has terminated its contract with Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. of San Diego.
"We've had that discussion more often than I like to think about,'' Lamb said of ending the contract. "Of course, yes, there is a point where it is not viable. Are we there yet? I don't think so.
"One of the challenges of this project is we are in the front end of new technology,'' he said. "It's hard to predict the difficulties you might run into.''
Meanwhile, Lamb has been in weekly phone contact with Cubic since November and has written numerous letters — some strongly worded — documenting the schedules and conversations.
Cubic is also one of the companies testing new downtown parking meters.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ Cubic Corp."> 05/09/05 09:07 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
19 August 2005
Metro board meeting topics: "smart cards" and Tasers
Rad Sallee went to yesterday's Metro board meeting and reports that Metro's "smart card" system will soon be back in development again:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority board voted Thursday to hire another firm because the original contractor, Cubic Transportation Systems of San Diego, Calif., was fired in March. The agency is seeking in court to recover the $4.5 million already paid to Cubic for the high-tech system that never met expectations.
Metro consultant Richard Lobron said Ascom Transport Systems products have performed well in New Jersey, Boston, Lyon, France, and elsewhere, and won't have to be redesigned for Metro's needs.
Lobron said sensors can respond to the cards' computer chip in a fraction of a second compared with several seconds to read cards with magnetic strips. This automatically deducts the fare from a prepaid amount, like EZ Tags on the county's tollways, he said.
[snip]
Although the Cubic contract was for $8.5 million and the board voted to spend up to $20 million with Ascom, Lobron said the two deals are very different. He said Ascom is charging $9.8 million for equipment and services that go beyond Cubic's offer, such as helping Metro market the cards and operating a help desk to answer users' questions for a year.
The $20 million is a "not to exceed" sum that Metro spokesman George Smalley said would allow for future expansions of the system not covered in the Cubic contract.
And Metro Police Chief Lambert wants more Tasers:
The board also heard a proposal from Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert to buy 140 Tasers, which shoot electric darts that administer a shock. Metro has had 30 of the devices, which cost about $1,000 each, since 2003 and has used them 20 times without serious injury, he said.
[snip]
Lambert said Tasers are intended for use when the alternative is bullets, but board Chairman David Wolff noted that the nonlethal nature of the devices can lead to overuse.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/19/05 06:06 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
24 April 2006
Metro's new smart card system appears to be working
Now that Metro has a new company working on its smart card system, things appear to be moving along at a much faster clip:
Some bus riders may already have noticed a small box mounted beside the bulky unit. The new readers are not only sleeker than the ones they replace, they are smarter and a lot more durable — with no moving parts.
Like the existing cards, the "smart cards" that work with the new readers will be sold at Metro Ride Stores and at retail outlets. But in place of a magnetic strip that can be programmed with digital code, they have an embedded computer chip.
Both types of card can keep track of fare charges, but the old cards had to be inserted into the reader, and riders needed a separate card for each type of fare purchased: day passes good for 24 hours from time of purchase; time passes good for seven, 30 or 365 days after first use; and stored-value cards that offered discount fares for paying in advance.
A single smart card can be programmed any of these ways, and will work on buses or MetroRail trains.
Now, if we could just get Metro to practice fare enforcement (turnstiles, perhaps?) on MetroRail.
Rad Sallee's story includes the big dollar contract details:
Metro terminated Cubic's $8.5 million contract in March 2005 and hired Ascom (later bought by ACS) in August. Lobron said the ACS contract, for up to $20 million, covers much more than Metro had asked from Cubic, including marketing assistance, a public education campaign, a help desk and other services. To date, $14 million has been spent, he said.
Meanwhile, Cubic has sued to collect the $4 million unpaid balance on its contract. The case is pending in state district court.
Cubic is suing to get the balance of a contract when it never delivered a working product? Unbelievable. For some reason I had thought Metro was suing to get back all the money it had paid to Cubic, but apparently not, so that's four million taxpayer dollars down the drain.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/24/06 08:37 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
19 March 2005
Metro's "smart card" saga rolls on
I chuckled when I saw this Metro press release yesterday:
METRO recently made buying fare passes even more convenient with the launch of the Online RideStore, where patrons can purchase fare items using a credit card and receive the items via U.S. mail.
Items available for purchase include 30-Day and 365-Day Passes (costs vary based on the fare zone the items are being purchased for) and Stored Value Cards of various amounts.
[snip]
Patrons are reminded that Stored Value Cards still are not valid as proof of payment on METRORail
That pesky Stored Value Card (aka "smart card") sure has been giving Metro fits.
And in today's Chronicle we learn that the saga continues (we'll have to take a leap of faith and assume the story is accurate):
The transit agency sent San Diego-based Cubic Transportation Systems a letter of termination Friday, saying the company had defaulted on its contract obligations to produce a workable smart card fare system.
Cubic responded by asking state District Judge Bill Burke to bar Metro from ending the contract. Burke denied the request.
Instead, the parties agreed to meet March 28 with mediator Alvin Zimmerman, a former family district court judge and return to court April 4.
[snip]
Cubic general counsel Kenn Kopf said the company has "substantially fulfilled" its $8 million contract, which began in November 2002, and would complete it by Aug. 4, if allowed. He said Metro owes Cubic $4 million for the balance of its contract.
[snip]
The smart card system was to be fully operable by November 2003 when MetroRail trains were about to start running. Metro contends Cubic missed deadlines, including Dec. 1, 2004, to produce a working system.
Metro hired Cubic to upgrade the fareboxes on all its buses and integrate them into a system with the ticket vending machines at rail platforms and 250 retail outlets where tickets can be purchased. The goal was to offer riders a plastic card with an embedded computer chip that could store value and debit fares for buses and trains when waved over a sensor.
Wilson said tests of Cubic's system showed that fareboxes misread the cards 5 percent of the time. The system also is slow, not secure from hackers and lacks wireless data transmission, Metro says.
The whole thing would be funny if there wasn't so much taxpayer money involved.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/19/05 01:22 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
06 June 2005
The end of the downtown parking meter tryouts
In today's Move It! column, Rad Sallee reports that the downtown parking meter tryouts are over. City council will decide in July which company gets the contract and the first meters should be in place this fall.
There's no word if the new meters will come with human monitors.
RELATED: City should be wary of Cubic parking meters (blogHOUSTON)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/06/05 05:43 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
02 May 2005
Will the new parking meters always have babysitters?
Filling in for the now-departed Lucas Wall is Juan Alanis who today tells us how the downtown parking meter try-outs are going:
The jury is still out on which one of the seven vendors will win a contract to install new parking meters near the downtown courthouse complex. But as the five-week trial period comes to an end, the public's verdict appears favorable.
At least that's the consensus of people monitoring the use of the meters.
So, let's check out the public's view:
"I think it's wonderful," he said after having another driver explain to him how the Rhino model parking meter works.
[snip]
Lisa Vincent, one of the meter pollsters for the district, said most of the people who've come across the devices on her shift have been confused. Vincent has spent 16 hours in the last two weeks asking users about the meters.
[snip]
Eddie Kaplan, a downtown courier, is hopeful that the new technology will be easier to use, but he's not counting on it. Struggling with parking devices is an everyday part of his daily routine and one that has him skeptical of the machines.
[snip]
Wilbanks was more hopeful, even after having to resort back to coins. He tried inserting his credit card into the parking meter several times unsuccessfully before going back to his truck to get change.
"I think it's going to be a lot better when the credit card works," he said.
Sounds like everything's going swell. What happens when the helpful "meter pollsters" are gone and folks who are unfamiliar with downtown parking meters have to figure them out on their own?
And there's this gem:
The firm awarded the contract eventually will install 600 meters downtown by the fall and an additional 1,400 in the near future in the rest of the city, said Liliana Rambo, the newly appointed assistant director of the Municipal Courts Parking Management Division. She said determining factors in awarding the contract include cost, how the meter works and ease of repair service.
Before coming to Houston, Rambo negotiated the purchase of 89 meters at $8,000 each for the city of Hollywood, Fla. She hopes that experience will help her purchase the devices here for no more than $7,500 each.
We do too! It's very nice of Hollywood, FL to let Rambo practice her parking meter-negotiation-skills before coming to Houston.
And last, but definitely not least, Alanis' story mentions that Cubic Corp. is one of the companies whose meters are being tested, but doesn't mention that Metro is currently suing Cubic for failing to produce a functioning "smart card" fare system.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/02/05 01:58 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
17 December 2004
Metro's fare policy
Metro is changing a policy for those don't pay a bus or train fare:
Fare evaders caught by Metropolitan Transit Authority police now are issued a citation charging them with theft of services, a Class C misdemeanor heard in Houston Municipal Courts. The new procedure will allow those cited to settle the ticket by paying a $75 civil fine to Metro. After 30 days, outstanding tickets will be sent to the courts for criminal adjudication.
The only thing missing from this story is the number of people who have been ticketed for fare-evading. This would be especially interesting to know, considering Metro has had a problem actually collecting fares for MetroRail. In September Lucas Wall wrote a story specifically detailing Metro's fare collection and verification system, or lack thereof. He wrote that the light rail train is "designed to operate on an honor system with random checks for fare payment."
Now why is it that Metro train riders are assumed to be honest and trustworthy, but Houston car drivers are presumed to be guilty red light-runners who must have cameras watching them go through intersections?
The rest of Wall's story today is about the smart card system that still isn't working:
[...] the Metro board met [...] to discuss options for gaining compliance on a contract with Cubic Transportation Systems, a San Diego company hired to supply a "smart card" fare system Metro says was supposed to have been ready for the opening of the rail. Cubic disputes that it is to blame for the lengthy delay.
The Washington (DC) Metro requires every person to buy a ticket and enter the ticket into a turnstile and the turnstile doesn't open 'til it checks the fare ticket. Houston opens its light rail with a combination honor system/unfunctioning smart card system. That's some new kind of business strategy! No wonder Metro requires millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/17/04 08:52 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
12 January 2006
ACS gets contract to develop Metro's "smart card" system
More than two years after Metro was supposed to have a working "smart card" fare system, and one year after Metro stopped paying Cubic Corp. to produce that system, Metro has awarded a contract to ACS Inc. to produce the ticket-less system:
Affiliated Computer Services Inc. has won a $14 million contract with the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County to install a contact-less ticketing system for the area's bus and light rail system.
Under the terms of the deal, the new system is slated for rollout in mid-2006.
ACS (NYSE: ACS), a Dallas-based technology outsourcing company will supply and install the equipment for Houston's 1,300 buses and light rail transit, as well as provide system maintenance and passenger assistance services.
The transit authority terminated a contract with its previous supplier.
Under the system, transit and bus users will be supplied with smartcards. The transit authority expects to give 70 percent of its passengers the cards in the first year of availability.
The use of the cards will limit the use of on-board fare boxes to occasional riders, reducing operating expenses.
ACS is also a big provider of red light cameras in cities nationwide. It will be interesting to see if ACS ends up with that contract here in Houston.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/12/06 07:21 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
22 December 2004
Houston Food Bank receives big donation
The Houston Food bank has received a big Christmas present -- two years of electricity:
Calpine Corporation (NYSE: CPN - News) is brightening the holidays and New Year for the Houston Food Bank and its member agencies by gifting the nonprofit organization with Calpine's first in-kind donation of electricity in the United States. The independent power producer will provide all of the electricity to the Houston Food Bank's headquarters from its network of 11 Texas power plants beginning December 1, 2004, through December 31, 2006.
Valued at approximately $6,000 per month, the annual donation of close to $72,000 will be the largest single charitable donation Calpine will make in 2005.
"We are in awe of this tremendous gift from Calpine Corporation, and its value goes way beyond its monetary one," says Houston Food Bank President and CEO Brenda Kirk. "This donation will touch the lives of hundreds of thousands of needy residents in the Gulf Coast region with a gift of hope and help in the form of nutritious meals. This donation allows us to take funding earmarked for utilities and redirect it to feeding the hungry in Houston and 17 additional counties across Texas. We estimate that Calpine's donation will allow us to provide more than 2 million additional meals to those in need."
Demand for electricity is around-the-clock at the Houston Food Bank headquarters, a 73,000-square-foot warehouse facility that also houses the organization's businesses offices and features 151,000 cubic feet of refrigeration and freezer space for storage of nonperishable items previous to distribution. The Houston Food Bank's distinction as the national leader among food banks in the distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables also makes this massive refrigeration space a necessity.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/22/04 01:05 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
29 March 2006
Another boondoggle to add to the Lee P. Brown files
This KPRC-2 story on Houston's (not-functioning-very-well) automated water meter reading system is mind-blowing:
In 1999, former Houston Mayor Lee Brown trumpeted Houston as the first city to have a completely automated water meter reading system.
The goal of the program was to save the city millions of dollars by eliminating a small army of employees who physically read the meters. Instead, radio transmitters beam the information from the meter to a computer in a van as it drives by.
The project was supposed to cost $50 million and be complete in 2003. Instead, it's now costing approximately $75 million and won't be complete until 2008.
"The failure rate is beyond anything that we should have experienced," Houston City Controller Annise Parker said.
The Troubleshooters started asking questions about this program last summer. That prompted Parker to do her own review. She found the radio transmitters on the water meters have a 47 percent failure rate.
Forty-seven percent failure rate? $25 million cost overrun? Where's THAT money coming from?
But wait, it gets worse:
"That's something that we're not really proud of," said Wes Johnson, with the public works department.
Johnson said part of the problem is the new meters did not stand up that well to Houston's climate.
"This is cutting edge technology. Nobody has ever done this before in a city this size," he said.
Holy cow. A $50 million project with cutting edge technology that had never been done on this scale before, and no one thought to ask if it could stand up to Houston's weather??? Again, who's footing the bill for all this?
But wait, there's more:
The other part of the problem came when the city first started installing the transmitters. Initially, city employees did the work.
"A significant number of these were damaged. Some of our guys and gals didn't exactly know how to install them and damaged them during installation," Johnson said.
Aaargh!
But wait, there's even more:
But that's not the end of it. There are still at least 55,000 of the transmitters that are not working, are out of warranty and the city has no idea why they won't work.
"It almost reminds you of the $700 toilet that the Air Force bought years ago. It's sort of like, 'How bad can it get for the taxpayer?'" Houston City Councilman Michael Berry said.
How bad? So far, it's cost more than $3 million just to replace bad transmitters.
This is a perfect example of why government is rarely the answer to...anything.
So, here are the obligatory questions: Who's the genius who sold the city this project? What company is getting all this money for a product that doesn't work? Who's the moron who had untrained city employees installing what are obviously very sensitive meters?
At least Metro is attempting to recover taxpayer money lost on a non-working smart card fare system. Is the city going to sue the manufacturer of this barely-functioning water meter system? Why should taxpayers have to fund all these cost overruns for something that doesn't work? Why don't government contracts have escape clauses built in to make sure taxpayers don't get stuck paying for these boondoggles?
And call me a cynic, but which Mayor Brown official (or officials) was rewarded for getting this contract going? That IS how government (especially local government) operates.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/29/06 07:16 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (12)
19 September 2004
Houston Chronicle "Rail Memo" Mirror
In November 2002, as rail was being debated as a transit option for Houston, the Houston Chronicle inadvertently posted an internal memo to their website. The memo quite clearly revealed an editorial strategy aimed at winning the public over to rail, and attacking opponents of rail. It just as clearly revealed the Chronicle as a biased advocate for, rather than objective reporter of, local public policy.
For some time, the Houston Review had the memo posted on their website. Earlier this summer, their website disappeared. An archived version of the memo is available here. In addition, we are mirroring the transcribed memo below. Finally, Tom Bazan sent graphic screen caps of the memo, which are available by clicking here and here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/19/04 05:43 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
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