From a member of the IllumiBARTi, who says. “TransLink is still not working on BART. Maybe it’ll start after they settle the strike?” Keep trying, folks! Don’t mind the people who look at you funny, all “why are you trying to use your library card here?”

And now, since our last two articles on BART and TransLink generated a couple of questions from commenters — and we figured they might not be the only ones — we went to BART spokesperson Linton Johnson, and here’s what we got:


SethBenson asks

Doesn’t Muni have this service up and running at their turnstyles? I could swear that my girlfriend and I have had to use separate card checks that actually had Translink logos on them. Is Johnson saying that the EZ card readers will house both the EZrider cards and the Translink cards? Should we be looking for Translink branded readers on the BART turnstyles? I am familiar with card panels from the security system here at work and I know that we are able to activate the terminals to use separate products given that we know the format of the cards. So, the chief question is this: are we looking for specific readers or are we just going to keep trying our translinks at the same posts as EZRider?

Yes, SethBenson, Muni does have them running, indeed.

BART spokesperson Linton Johnson responds “There’s only one transponder on our faregates – they will recognize both cards.” and that both the EZrider and TL cards will work until the conversion to TL is complete. So you don’t need to look for specifically branded readers, there’s just going to be the one. SethBenson, does that fully answer your question?


talineslo notes:

I handle commuter benefits at my company so I load e-cash on multiple Translink cards each month. I noticed at the end of June on ONLY one of the Translink cards that there’s a greyed out option to add a High Value Discount Bart ticket. Can’t click on it. I haven’t seen this same greyed out option on the other cards I load. Seems shady.

To which Johnson responds “She’ll have to call Translink about that issue…the website is TL’s issue, not ours. talineslo, we’ve reached out to TL to get the scoop from them, but we’re wondering, has anyone else seen this? If so, can you please send us a screencap?

Got more questions? We’ll do our best to get you the answers, so keep them coming. Until then, keep trying your TransLink on BART, and keep us posted.

the author

Eve Batey is the editor and publisher of the San Francisco Appeal. She used to be the San Francisco Chronicle's Deputy Managing Editor for Online, and started at the Chronicle as their blogging and interactive editor. Before that, she was a co-founding writer and the lead editor of SFist. She's been in the city since 1997, presently living in the Outer Sunset with her husband, cat, and dog. You can reach Eve at eve@sfappeal.com.

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