CaltrainClipperFailure

I Such at Clipper Card

Caltrain is converting the the Clipper Card rfid payment system. I've been a Caltrain monthly pass holder for about three years as I commute daily from San Francisco to Mountain View. The existing monthly pass is a simple paper ticket that is mailed to me each month.

But of course, change is good, so that system is coming to an end this month. Now all monthly pass holders must electronically load their passes on the Clipper Card instead. That's slightly more annoying than carrying a paper pass, for starters your pass doesn't get loaded onto your card each month until you tag your card at a station. Another problem is that Caltrain uses a zone payment system, which means you have to tag on and off so Clipper knows how far you've traveled and can deduct the appropriate amount from your card (if you aren't using a monthly pass).

This month I got my new Clipper card and my first electyronic monthly pass. I knew that I had to tag my card at the station to download my pass on the first of the month. Note that Clipper cards can hold both monthly passes and electronic cash. As I tagged my card the first time, I saw a message about 'new pass downloaded' and something about money being deducted. Hm, that's weird - why is it taking cash off my card as well as loading the pass? Well who knows, let's get to work.

I continued on to work, and the next couple of days everything worked fine. The conductor would come by and scan my card and the scanner would report my monthly pass was valid.

At the end of the week I used my Clipper card to take my weekly trip to the San Francisco Ferry Building farmers market. When I tagged on the Muni train, I noticed that I had only $3 in cash on my card. That was odd because I knew I had $15 on it the week before. I had just used my Caltrain monthly pass, so where did the cash go? Suddenly the Caltrain message about deducting money became interesting. Had Caltrain charged me for that first trip, even though I had a monthly pass?

I called Clipper customer service to see what was going on, and they confirmed that I had been charged for my first trip on Caltrain with the new monthly pass. It turns out that you must tag on and tag off the first trip of the month. When you tag on, you get your monthly pass and you start a cash ride. When you tag off, the cash fare is automatically refunded to you.

Since I hadn't tagged off, Caltrain automatically charged me the max fare of $12.50, which explained where my cash went. The Clipper customer service rep was very friendly and said this confusion happened all the time. He also told me that the next time I rode Caltrain I should complete a ride tag on/off to ensure everything was right in the system. He submitted a refund request for me, but warned me that came from Caltrain so it would take a couple weeks. Eh, that's ok I guess.

The next work day, I forgot to tag on when I started my trip. On my way home I decided to tag on at Mountain View and off at San Francisco, figuring a reverse trip would satisfy the system.

When I got home that night I immediately walked home without tagging off, because of course I've been doing this every day for three years so my habits are completely ingrained.

Just about four hours later, I realized what I had done. I looked online, and the consensus was that you had four hours from first tag on to Caltrain to tag off, before the system expired out your trip and charged you full fare. I was at home with my two young boys so I had to quickly get them dressed and out the door to walk the temn minutes to the Caltrain station.

And of course, I didn't make it in time. I arrived at the station after the four hour limit. When I tagged my card I saw INVALID FOR TRAVEL BALANCE -$7.00 By forgetting to tag off a second time I'd taken my card negative and rendered it useless. Christ I felt like an idiot.

A little googling confirmed that you are required to keep at least $1.25 in cash on every Clipper card, even if you only use a monthly Caltrian pass. I think there are two reasons for this:

1. zone upgrades 2. the richmond trick