The card that could

Jul 1, 1998 12:00 PM, MICHAEL FICKES

The transportation authority in Chicago has developed a photo ID program that badges groups of riders at special fares.

For many organizations, badging supports the overarching requirements of an access control security system. But that is not always the case. Sometimes the badging system itself takes the lead by providing a variety of services to defined groups of people.

In the Chicago metropolitan area, for example, the Regional Transit Authority (RTA), which oversees commuter transportation in a six-county area, has implemented three photo-identification badging programs for large groups of senior citizens, system employees and transit system retirees.

These programs provide free- and half-fare access to the region's three mass transportation services: commuter rail transportation within the city, administered by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA); commuter rail service to outlying suburban areas of the region, which is handled by Metra; and the suburban bus line, or PACE.

CTA has taken the lead in developing and implementing these badging systems for itself and the other transportation providers under the RTA umbrella.

In 1996, CTA badged 13,000 employees with one-year, free-fare cards. Last December, CTA reissued those badges in the form of two-year cards and also provided 5,000 transit authority retirees with free-fare cards. Starting several years ago, CTA began a program for senior citizens that has grown to include more than 400,000 half-fare cards.

The authority plans two more programs, one for the Chicago police and one for Chicago public schools. The latter program may experiment with new badge features.

System setup CTA asked Chicago-based company Card Imaging to set up the badging system in 1996. The goals included constructing a system that could badge large groups of people with distinct characteristics, accommodate inevitable card losses, and provide reports about system use by each of these special-fare and free-fare users.

Card Imaging owner Bill Rajki devised a batch-mode system to do this. For each group, Card Imaging produced large blocks of cards and recorded their numbers. Next, Rajki and company organized massive photo shoots, printed the cards and distributed them. "When a particular group was badged, the card numbers were turned on in the fare collection system," Rajki says. "The system won't handle one person at a time. The idea is to produce more cards than there are people in the system. When a card is lost or a new person comes into the group, remaining cards are assigned, printed with a photo and activated."

The hard part comes in starting up particular groups. There are 13,000 RTA employees, for example. While creating a batch of cards and recording their numbers proved relatively easy, getting the photos, saving the photos and the accompanying information about individuals, and then managing the database posed logistics challenges. "To do the photography, we went out in teams to 20 different sites and set up photo stations," Rajki says. "We used Kodak digital cameras, because they offered the ability to store the photos on memory cards. We shot all of the photos at remote locations so as not to inconvenience the employees. Couriers carried the memory cards back to a central badging production site, where the information was downloaded into desktop computers."

System management Software provided by G&A Imaging Ltd. of Hull, Quebec, Canada, manages the images and data. To manage the images, the software allows users to color-correct and crop photos. Data management tasks involve storing photos, signatures, names and fare information; activating batches of cards; de-activating cards carried by employees who leave as well as cards reported as lost or stolen; and generating reports on lost cards, people with two cards and card use.

While not used to provide access control and security, the cards and the reporting capabilities of the G&A software do offer certain management controls. "Every time someone logs in or out of the system, we have a record," says Geraldine Tapling, general manager of personnel services for CTA. "We know that a card was used on this train or bus at this time. So management can pull records to determine what stations or locations system employees were working with at a given time."

Printers supplied by Eltron International Inc., Simi Valley, Calif., imprint the images onto sturdy 10-mil-thick polyester and PVC magnetic stripe cards. "We selected Eltron printers for their reliability and for their ability to accept 10-mil-thick cards," Rajki says.

Card technology CardPro of Westmont, Ill., supplied the cards themselves, which came with mag-stripe data such as the card number and fare information related to the badged group. "These cards use a high-coercivity mag stripe, which means the data cannot be erased," Rajki says.

The system also uses different kinds of mag-stripe data to define different fare structures. Employees and retirees ride for free, while senior citizens ride for half fare. "The free-fare cards for employees and retirees are simply access cards," says Joe Simonetti, general manager of the revenue, equipment, technology and maintenance department at CTA. "Senior citizens, however, carry debit cards programmed to deal with half fares. Senior citizens insert cards into the system's vending machines and deposit money to add value. When they travel, the system charges them half fare by deducting value from the cards."

Taking it further According to Simonetti, the planned program to badge the Chicago police department will follow the pattern set for employees and retirees and provide free-fare access cards.

But a program being developed for the Chicago public schools may include the debit concept used by senior citizens and take that idea even further. "We're working on a program that will provide students with a half-fare card that will be used as a photo identification card, a debit card to pay for meals in the school cafeteria, and perhaps provide other services," Simonetti says.

Cards with microprocessor chips - smart cards - may replace the magnetic-stripe cards in the near future, says Simonetti. The cards will carry photos, and the chip will provide a greater variety of services. The big advantage of smart cards, however, lies in reducing maintenance costs, says Simonetti. "Right now, our cards are inserted into slots and carried through the readers on a system of belts and pulleys that must be maintained," he says. "With a smart card, users will only have to touch the card to the reader to pay their fare."

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