Off-vehicle fare payment

Benefits

This photo illustrates an off-board fare payment system utilized by the New York MTA's Select Bus BRT system. Photo by Flickr user Phil Davis NY.

Off-vehicle fare payment dramatically speeds up boarding, by eliminating time-intensive payment process and allowing for boarding at all doors. The Federal Transit Administration notes:

Moving all fare collection off the bus offers the greatest potential for reducing dwell time. Not only is fare payment time reduced to zero, but all doors of the bus can be used for both loading and unloading.

Off-vehicle fare payment is one of many strategies relating to boarding and alighting that can decrease end-to-end run time, and thus save money on operations.

Costs

Off-vehicle fare payment may require additional vending machines at transit station stops. Another cost associated with off-vehicle fare payment is the cost of inspecting tickets for proof of payment. Thus, such a system may only be practical on corridors with very high numbers of boardings.