Fanshawe Students versus the LTC
Fanshawe student cards serve as formal
identification, entrance keys, library cards,
health cards, meal plan and printer payment
cards, making their functionality vital for the
success of Fanshawe students.
An additional feature has been in the works since 2012 and endured repeated delays for a year and a half. The Smart Card technology allows student cards to be used as London Transit Commission (LTC) bus passes. The additional function, which according to an article by London Free Press costs $3.7 million to implement, has been causing problems for Fanshawe students ever since its inception.
The feature was meant to eliminate the need for students to carry a bus pass in addition to their student card and make the transit system more timely and reliable by speeding up the boarding process.
Ideally, the card is tapped against a card reader terminal which processes the bus fare, records the trip and collects highly accurate ridership and service data including exact times and locations which can be used to determine exactly how often each stop is used and by how many students. Bus routes may then be altered accordingly to increase efficiency.
Students were surprised to find the feature missing at the beginning of the 2014 school year, due to problems implementing the software and hardware, according to an anonymous LTC bus driver.
The LTC estimated that these issues would be resolved by fall 2014. The London Transit website subsequently updated its home page to feature the bulletin “Smart Card Implementation Underway”, which claimed that the technology would be fixed “over the next few months” in six phases, the first of which was “Fanshawe students tapping their cards”.
The bulletin was then updated to say, “Effective Sept. 1, 2015, Fanshawe students began tapping their student cards on the smart card readers to record their trip.”
However, students are still reporting problems having their cards accepted by the card readers at the beginning of the 2015 school year, with one student claiming the problem is constant “on Windermere at 8:10 every morning.”
According to London Free Press, the issue is due to a delay in registration information updates.
Fanshawe students should still be able to get a hassle free trip by simply presenting a student card to an LTC bus driver, though in reality this is not always the case. Several students have claimed that they have been declined a seat on an LTC bus due to the defective Smart Card technology.
According to one Fanshawe student it “depends on the bus driver…some don’t care and just let you on but then you have the jerks who kick you off or make a big deal out of it.”
Hopefully Fanshawe students can look forward to better service in the future, but based on the Smart Card technology’s long history of delays and difficulties, this will probably be no time soon. All pitfalls aside, the Smart Card technology should be a massive improvement and innovation for the London Transit system. It just might take another few years for it to function properly.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
An additional feature has been in the works since 2012 and endured repeated delays for a year and a half. The Smart Card technology allows student cards to be used as London Transit Commission (LTC) bus passes. The additional function, which according to an article by London Free Press costs $3.7 million to implement, has been causing problems for Fanshawe students ever since its inception.
The feature was meant to eliminate the need for students to carry a bus pass in addition to their student card and make the transit system more timely and reliable by speeding up the boarding process.
Ideally, the card is tapped against a card reader terminal which processes the bus fare, records the trip and collects highly accurate ridership and service data including exact times and locations which can be used to determine exactly how often each stop is used and by how many students. Bus routes may then be altered accordingly to increase efficiency.
Students were surprised to find the feature missing at the beginning of the 2014 school year, due to problems implementing the software and hardware, according to an anonymous LTC bus driver.
The LTC estimated that these issues would be resolved by fall 2014. The London Transit website subsequently updated its home page to feature the bulletin “Smart Card Implementation Underway”, which claimed that the technology would be fixed “over the next few months” in six phases, the first of which was “Fanshawe students tapping their cards”.
The bulletin was then updated to say, “Effective Sept. 1, 2015, Fanshawe students began tapping their student cards on the smart card readers to record their trip.”
However, students are still reporting problems having their cards accepted by the card readers at the beginning of the 2015 school year, with one student claiming the problem is constant “on Windermere at 8:10 every morning.”
According to London Free Press, the issue is due to a delay in registration information updates.
Fanshawe students should still be able to get a hassle free trip by simply presenting a student card to an LTC bus driver, though in reality this is not always the case. Several students have claimed that they have been declined a seat on an LTC bus due to the defective Smart Card technology.
According to one Fanshawe student it “depends on the bus driver…some don’t care and just let you on but then you have the jerks who kick you off or make a big deal out of it.”
Hopefully Fanshawe students can look forward to better service in the future, but based on the Smart Card technology’s long history of delays and difficulties, this will probably be no time soon. All pitfalls aside, the Smart Card technology should be a massive improvement and innovation for the London Transit system. It just might take another few years for it to function properly.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
