Enough’s enough with SunRail’s unreliable ticket-vending
machine system.
Xerox is the vendor with the contract to install and maintain the
machines. Quite frankly, the ticketing system hasn't worked since Day 1.
It’s not as though SunRail just launched the other day.
SunRail has been running revenue operations since mid-May 2014 when riders were
required to buy tickets. We’ve been in SunRail stations where 3 of the 4
vending machines were out of order. In addition, the ticketing problems have
fouled up back-office operations that make it difficult for SunRail to accurately count
and analyze ridership trends.
On Friday, Jan. 2, the machines had all kinds of problems when
riders surged into stations to ride SunRail at the end of the Christmas
holiday season. In some cases SunRail trains left stations while
people were still in line trying to buy tickets.
 |
| Rube Goldberg contraption |
Xerox has a million excuses and says they’ve sent squads of
techs to resolve the issues. That’s too little, too late. If Xerox can’t
deliver, then they shouldn’t have bid on the job.
The ticket-vending machine problems leave many SunRail
riders -- and would-be-riders -- with a bad taste in their mouths. Those riders
don’t complain about Xerox. They complain about SunRail.
We think Xerox's top executives should attend the Jan. 9 meeting of the Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission to take heat directly from our elected officials.
It’s time to cut the crap.
SunRail says it’s withholding payment to Xerox, and
certainly lawsuits are probably in order. But none of that helps the riders who
have been inconvenienced by the ticket-machine problems.
Fortunately, we’ve got a solution. Every time a rider tries
to buy a ticket and the machine is too slow, or it won’t work, the rider should
board the train without a ticket and tell the conductor what happened. The
conductor should record the number of riders who couldn’t buy a ticket. Then
Xerox should be charged $7.50 -- the full price of a round trip ticket from DeBary
to Sand Lake Road.
Will some scamsters game the system? We’re sure they
will. But you know whose problem that will be? Xerox. Get the ticket-vending
machine system fixed and Xerox won’t have to pay the fares anymore.
The ticket-vending machine problems aren’t an
inconvenience. They’re an embarrassment. We’re tired of it.
See you on The Rail.
My husband and I took Sun Rail from DeBary to Sand Lake, then took the Express Bus to the Orlando Airport. Going South, we bought one way tickets, 1 Senior, 1 Adult. With those TKTS came a free transfer for the express bus, total cost $6 for both. On the return, we each paid $2.00 for the express bus back to the Sand Lake Sun Rail, and received our transfer tickets. When we tried to purchase our return Sun Rail TKTS, my adult tkt ws discounted the $2, but there is no option when using the bus transfer to use it towards the purchase of a student or senior tkt, so you must purchase an adult tkt. total cost on the return was $8.00. Still a great price, but Students and Seniors must pay twice as much for the Northnound trip as the Southbound trip costs. Something doesn't seem right.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a SunRail SunCard (like I do!) you cannot even use a transfer... never have been able to. Doesn't matter if you use Votran or Lynx and I know that they are aware of the situation... I was at the Central Lynx Station platform one afternoon when someone was there from SunRail with some techs from Xerox. I had already called and emailed about the problem numerous times (with no response) so I walked right up to them and told them about it... and then DEMONSTRATED it. It was like it was the first time any of them had heard about this... but it's been an issue since day one.
ReplyDelete