Skip to main content

Clipper hits millionth card milestone

The San Francisco Bay Area's Clipper transit fare-collection programme has hit the magic one million active cards in circulation milestone. Staff at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) credit the surge to transit operator campaigns to transition more riders, especially youth and senior riders, from paper tickets and passes to the reloadable Clipper card before the end of the year.
March 23, 2012 Read time: 1 min

The San Francisco Bay Area's Clipper transit fare-collection programme has hit the magic one  million active cards in circulation milestone. Staff at the 343 Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) credit the surge to transit operator campaigns to transition more riders, especially youth and senior riders, from paper tickets and passes to the reloadable Clipper card before the end of the year.

As of Friday, 16 December, there were 1,000,606 active Clipper cards in use, up roughly 2,000 from the prior week. The million-plus active cards figure represents nearly a 30 per cent increase from the 778,197 active cards in circulation six months ago, and a 142 per cent increase from the 413,616 active cards in circulation a year ago.

Introduced by MTC in June of 2010 with five major transit systems (plus the Dumbarton Express), the Clipper program has been growing exponentially as more transit agencies have joined and as participating systems have been phasing out paper fare media and transitioning to the Clipper card.

Related Content

  • April 24, 2014
    California’s MTC expands Cubic Clipper card contract
    California’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has awarded Cubic Transportation Systems a US$7.5 million add-on contract to expand the Clipper card fare payment system to more than a dozen suburban transit agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area. The system, which Cubic delivered and operates, will enhance travel options for commuters in parts of the East and North Bay. Under the updated contract, Cubic will install and configure Clipper fare collection equipment on all East Bay and North Bay o
  • August 1, 2017
    San Francisco Bay Area transit systems extend Cubic operations contract
    Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) has been awarded a contract extension of up to five years from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) for operations and maintenance services supporting the regional Clipper card fare payment system in the San Francisco Bay Area. The extended contract period is from November 2019 to November 2024 and is valued at approximately US$25 million per year. MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.
  • September 10, 2018
    CTS is preferred bidder to upgrade San Francisco Clipper system
    Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) has been chosen by the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) as the preferred bidder to modernise the Clipper fare payment system. Currently, 22 regional transit operators use Clipper in the Bay area, including Caltrain, SamTrans and Union City Transit. The upgraded system will include an integrated mobile app supporting a virtual Clipper card and provide users access to real-time information, top up their accounts, plan trips and allow them to tap
  • January 28, 2016
    MTC awards funding to modernise Bay Area transit systems
    San Francisco’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has allocated US$494 million to help more than 20 Bay Area transit agencies replace or rehabilitate aging buses, ferries, rail cars, tracks and bridges; update safety, control and communications systems; install new fare-collection equipment; maintain services for elderly and disabled passengers; and make other capital improvements. The commitment includes US$447 million of federal transportation funds, supplemented by US$47 million of revenues fr