Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s new Next-Generation Clipper system sees major hiccups for SamTrans, Caltrain and BART

But the transition hasn’t been as smooth as intended. For instance, system outages have prevented riders from checking balances, adding value to their accounts and, in some cases, from paying fares altogether.

“Some customers experienced migration issues such as missing passes, autoload problems or unexpected charges,” Clipper Program Director Jason Weinstein said during a MTC meeting March 25. “For riders, these issues can cause real financial strain, not just inconvenience.”

System stability has improved since launch, Weinstein said, but problems persist.

“There were a couple outages this month, and the system stability is still not yet where we need it to be,” he said.

Ticket vending machines at some stations remain unreliable, new fare inspection devices have faced technical challenges and customer service has been unable to keep up with demand. The call center handles roughly 2,000 calls each weekday, according to the presentation, with call handling times averaging around 12 to 15 minutes. MTC expanded call center hours and hired additional agents in February, however, officials and commissioners have stated the minimal improvements remain inadequate.

“We need to make sure we’re going in the right direction,” Commissioner Gina Papan said during the meeting. “That is really not acceptable to consumers here.”

In response to the ongoing issues, MTC has paused the large-scale migration of remaining Clipper users to the new system. About 1.3 million of the roughly 15 million Clipper cards in circulation have migrated so far.

Despite the technical hurdles, Weinstein said that in February, riders completed more than 4 million account-based trips — about 31% of all Clipper trips that month.

“We’re seeing growth in account-based Clipper card usage, which tells us the system is moving in the right direction,” Weinstein said.

Commissioner Myrna Melgar said she is glad that the Next Generation effort has finally been launched, but it came with too many ups and downs.

“What was most frustrating for the public was the continuous ‘it’s coming’ and it never came, and then once it did come, it didn’t work as well as people had expected, especially because they waited so long,” she said.

MTC staff said they will resume broad migration only after critical issues are resolved. A major software update was recently deployed, and in addition to customer service operation expansions, the agency is also in the process of making critical infrastructure upgrades and tracking costs that may be recoverable under its contract with the system integration provider, Cubic Transportation Systems.