May 7: Committee Meetings, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
Covered by Documenter Lori Ingram (notes)
EZfare mobile ticketing up for renewal
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s contract with the EZfare mobile ticketing app is driving towards renewal. RTA’s Board of Trustees approved a two-year contract in last week’s committee meetings, teeing it up for final consideration by the full board on May 21.
Josh Miranda, RTA’s director of Management Information Systems, said the app generated $2.77 million in ticket sales as of March 2024. When RTA began using the app in 2022, it generated a little less than that in five months. In 2023, total sales via EZfare were $7.66 million. The contract renewal itself would cost $1.2 million over two years.
Revenue from mobile ticket sales accounted for 18% of ticket revenue in 2022 and 25% in 2023. According to Miranda, they expect that share to continue growing in 2024. As of March, mobile sales accounted for 23% of the total fare revenue.
RTA ticketing upgrades
Shawn Becker, a program contract manager with RTA, said they are working to install more ticket validators for mobile tickets throughout the transit system and in Tower City. He said the goal is to deploy the validators within the next 12 months after having further conversations about fare structure and strategy.
General Manager and CEO India Birdsong Terry said that, as RTA looks at fare capping, having validators at every point of service (buses, train, paratransit, etc.) is necessary to ensure an equitable system. Fare capping would limit or discount how much people pay for tickets in a given period of time.
She also said that unbanked people paying with cash will also need to be able to continue buying tickets despite the move toward mobile ticketing
Improvements to RTA rail lines on the horizon
Board members moved forward with a $591 million five-year capital improvement plan, with $165.9 million budgeted for spending in 2025. Rail projects and the rail car improvement program make up nearly half of the projected spending that year.
Mike Schipper, RTA’s deputy general manager for engineering and project management, said RTA has one of the oldest fleets in the country. He said it requires regular maintenance to be kept “in a state of good repair.”
In response to Board Member Calley Mersmann’s question about how track replacement lines up with rail car replacement, Schipper said that RTA spent about $65 million on the Red Line’s west end over the past six or seven years, leaving it in good shape. He said the Blue and Green Lines east of Shaker Square have experienced the biggest gap in funding. He said in a few years they will also need to invest in the Red Line’s east end.
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