Grand River Transit

[chutten]

The printing of transfers is painfully slow when paying by ticket, I don't know if the machine does better when paying by cash since that is in the machine proper instead of a temporary receptacle. Thankfully in my case I'm usually the only one printing a transfer, the rest of the people boarding usually have passes.

Thankfully scanning the transfers is nice & fast.

I signed up for the beta as did a couple of co-workers.

It may also be "faster"....that doesn't necessarily mean it is "fast".

I haven't timed it (before or after the purported fix), but it does not seem to be appreciably faster. This may be because the printer's only a part of the slowness:

There's a delay where the operator has to recognize I'm paying by ticket and press the button on the back that says "Yeah, we have one of -those- here" so that the terminal can activate the 'print a transfer button'. Then there's a delay for me to hit that button (some operators force the print directly so my button press is irrelevant). Then there are (*counts in his head, trying to remember*) four? seconds waiting for the printer to print and eject the transfer. Then a delay for me to pull it (with force! Good thing I have strength in my hands) from the machine's grip.

Even if the printer were instantaneous, there's no way this flow will be able to beat the speed of the rider scanning the transfer, hitting with a contactless pass, or showing the pass to the operator who then pushes a button. The best solution to this problem may not be faster printing, but getting the farecards everywhere, yesterday.

I wonder if we'll ever be able to load from multiple doors on the GRT. People are the slowest and most variable part of this system, and there's only so much farecards can help with that.