Outage!

We pulled into the Montgomery Station after an extra long stop at the Embarcadero Station. Everything seemed normal. We piled out of the car and herded ourselves to the stairs and escalators. Now I just woke up, so at first I couldn't tell if it was just unusually dark in the platforms or if there were way more people than normal. I headed over to the escalator to take the right side up (the lazy person’s side – right side you stand, left side you walk up), but then I noticed it. The escalators weren’t moving.

Interesting.

So I was going to walk up the escalators like everyone else was, but then I had a scary thought of the power coming back on and all of us being thrown into each other and tumbling down three flights. Not on my agenda that morning, so I quickly excused myself through the streams of people going up and headed up via the stairs. Much safer.

After about 1 minute of huffing up the three flights of stairs, I got to the top and realized the power was out up top too. The BART ticket gates were open, and people were streaming through them – basically getting a free ride from BART that morning. Wow. What luck, I thought. Free ride! Woopee! Nothing beats a free ride.

But wait.

I don’t have a BART ticket. I use Translink, which solely runs on the need to “swipe” my card on the card reader when entering and exiting. There are no fancy tricks with Translink; the BART station agents have no control on whether my card will work or not. The past times I’ve had problems, the card reader flashes, “see station agent,” and so, like a good little commuter who doesn’t want to mail her card in to get fixed, I obligingly side-step to the station agent booth and tell them my wonderful, highly technical and everyone’s commuter dream of a card isn’t working and I need to talk to them.

I’m lucky if I get a, “what?” in response because the BART station agents do not want and I repeat do not want to talk to me simply because I am holding a Translink card. I am told to call the Translink people. I am now friends with the Translink people and don’t bother with the BART station agents unless one stops me to chat about my commuter’s dream of a card. (Fremont going to work – That station agent is always concerned why I’m not using my Translink card during those few occasions when I use a BART card. Montgomery going home – That station agent likes to give me updates on the Translink progress. The last thing he told me was that the Translink add value machines were being ripped out. I told him good cause they never worked.)

For those unfamiliar with Translink (and I know you’re out there…), it is like a credit card. Money is uploaded onto your card automatically or by uploading using an add value machine. I have my card uploaded directly from my paycheck each month. I am part of the pilot program for Translink to see if it really works. If the program is adopted by the bay area transit authority, Translink will be available to anyone and can be used on most forms of public transportation (BART, buses, Muni, ferries). I like this system. It’s convenient, and you never have to worry about your card getting wet and soggy and not reading – like a BART card. However, as I stated above, it only works by “tagging” the card to an electronic card reader. So, when the electricity goes out, so does my card. If I don’t tag it while leaving, something bizarre happens when I try to use it later on and my card doesn’t work. I’ve never understood this, and I’ve just come to accept it as the mysteries of Translink. (You would think that if you tagged your card later on, it would think you’re leaving the station (9 hours later…) and then tag it again, it would think you’re entering the station (30 seconds later), but it just doesn’t work that way.)

So I looked at the BART ticket gates, and I looked at the swing gate, and I have to quickly decide or get ran over if I want to just walk through the BART ticket gates or go through the swing gate and just try and hope and pray that my Translink card reads. Ah, but I knew better, and so I walked through the BART ticket gates like the rest of the commuters.

When I got to work, I called the Translink people, and before speaking to a real person, I had to fight with the automated system to try to get it to recognize my card. No doing. So finally, after three attempts of trying to figure out what the “pound” sign really was (the number sign? the asterisk? – what was I doing wrong???), I was shuffled off into space to talk to a real person who asked how they could help me.

“First, your system isn’t recognizing my card…,” I said.

“Oh, that’s just our phone system, sorry for the inconvenience,” says friendly Translink person.

Stupid system! And I doubted my telephone number punching abilities! The number sign is the pound sign. Or was it the asterisk? The mind games!

“Oh, well. I just wanted to make sure. Second, the power was out at the Montgomery Station and...,” was all I got in.

“Oh! Yes! Our systems indicated a power outage. That was Montgomery? I wonder what happened. I’m surprised we haven’t gotten other calls!” she said enthusiastically.

“Um, I don’t know…anyway, I need the address so I can mail my card in to get it fixed because all the other times this happened my card didn’t work when I went home, so I’m not even going to try today. I’m just mailing it in.”

“Oh! Okay, but you can go to the Lake Merritt Station and have it fixed there, but if mailing is more convenient…,” she said.

“Yes,” I interrupt, “it is. Can I just get the address?”

She gives me the address and our call ends.

Now what does this mean? I have 115 dollars on my Translink card. On average, it takes about 4-5 days to get my card “fixed” and mailed back to me (and for some strange reason, my card is mailed back with their full brochure set-up for a new customer – not only a waste of paper but of postage). So, while I’m waiting for my Translink card to show up at my house, I’m spending 20 bucks every two days on a BART ticket.

If you can’t figure out why that’s annoying, then you need to fork out almost 200 bucks a month on BART fare to figure it out.