ACE Insider

October 4, 2007

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The Wide-Reaching Effect of Fraudulent ACE Tickets
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Passenger Service Representatives (PSR) are fare inspectors which ACE
has charged with the responsibility of ensuring the safety of the
passengers, in addition to making sure that each passenger has a valid
ticket while onboard the train.  Since ACE is a barrier-free public
transportation service, the Ticketing Department relies on the fare
inspectors to guarantee proper “fare-box” recovery.

Recently, ACE fare inspectors confiscated nearly 100 fraudulently-used
tickets within just two days.  Fraudulent tickets, for example, are
20-trip tickets validated more than 20 times or round-trip tickets
with six stamps.  ACE administration has received several messages
from honest passengers who alert staff to riders who teach others how
to cheat the ticketing system.

During the next few months, passengers will see an increase in careful
scrutiny by the PSR’s for adherence to the ticketing policies. At the
same time, ACE staff will be monitoring the fare-box recovery for
trends based on ridership numbers versus revenue; as of late, though
ridership numbers continue to climb, fare-box recovery has been
declining.

In January, the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission will re-evaluate
an increase in ACE fares.  If, based upon the progress of fare
recovery, the Board determines that an increase is warranted, ACE will
implement a fare increase.  The impact of fraudulent tickets and
passengers abusing the honor-based ticketing system may be affected by
everyone.




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Vasco Station Parking Lot
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Attention all Vasco station passengers!  The City of Livermore has
made great progress in the planning and construction of the new
parking lot at the Vasco Road station. City officials estimate that
the new parking lot will be completed and ready for your vehicles by
the end of October.

Thanks for your patience during this expansion.



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Searching for a Signal
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About 18 months ago, the Altamont Commuter Express began investing in
a new and cutting edge technology designed to put high speed internet
on each of the ACE trains. Over these last 18 months CTS and Raysat –
the equipment and service providers – have learned a lot about what
does not work and, more importantly, what will work. After the most
recent round of testing, it has become increasingly clear that the
largest “hurdle” is the amount of bandwidth needed to make this work.


Fixing this problem is not as easy as it sounds.

There has been very limited bandwidth available on satellites with a
“look angle” appropriate for Northern California. Further, there has
been a huge increase in price for this already limited commodity. On
the trains, our consultants had to learn about the best way to channel
the WiFi signal throughout each car and keep the signal strong enough
for passenger usage.

There have been additional factors they have had to overcome, such as
the very high temperatures in the ceiling of each train. Those high
temperatures can affect and even damage the equipment the consultants
are using for this project.

WiFi A Challenge Across the Rails

The idea of having Internet access onboard many other California
trains have stalled.

Caltrain has announced that they have rejected several bids to build
out their WiFi service.  The agency could not afford one of the
bidder’s costs, which resulted in a necessary subsidy, and did not
want to deal with the other bidder’s complexity.

The Capitol Corridor has experienced similar disappointments in their
WiFi testing, stating that the initial bidders either pulled out or
offered impractical options.

As you can see, there are many factors and variables that make this
endeavor a challenging project, but one that we have worked hard to
make successful.

Not Giving Up

With all of this in mind here is what ACE and its vendors are planning
to do:

 Swap out the current antennas for the latest version. This
includes changing the internal modems but not the internal WiFi CPE.
 Change service providers. ACE’s new provider will be providing
service on a new satellite with an even better “look angle” and the
amount of bandwidth will be 6X downlink and 4X uplink speeds as the
previous provider. This additional bandwidth is significantly more
than what is actually required.
 Test this out on one train and then move to the three other
trains once this proves successful.

In addition to what we have planned for the next step, there may be
options that we have not considered yet.  It is entirely possible that
solutions to the WiFi woes are more achievable than anyone has
realized thus far.  We admit that we are not technology geniuses, but
we know that we have technology geniuses onboard the ACE trains who
may know how to rectify the challenges that we have faced with this
service.

Do you want to be part of the solution?  I, personally, welcome your
suggestions and ideas. If you believe that you may have a solution in
mind for the pioneering of this unique, one-of-a-kind feature for the
train, please contact me – if your plan works, I may just hire you to
finish the project!

Stacey

wifi@...




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