CobbLinc Replacing Fareboxes on All Buses

Cobb County’s bus system is installing new fareboxes on all 90 of its buses, replacing old machines that were regularly malfunctioning.

CobbLinc plans to have the new fareboxes installed on all buses by Aug. 1.

Riders can pay for their bus trip with CobbLinc tickets and passes, Breeze cards, the Breeze mobile app or exact cash.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted unanimously in March to approve the purchase of the fareboxes, along with related software, hardware, installation, training and warranties.

The farebox overhaul is costing the county $1.38 million. Federal Transit Administration grant funds covered 80% of the cost; the rest was covered with local funds from the county’s Transit Grant Fund.

The old fareboxes were nearly two decades old, introduced in 2005.

The MDJ reported in February that farebox malfunctions were widespread on CobbLinc, based on interviews with four bus drivers and several transit users, as well as observations from taking several trips on the system.

“Most of our equipment is broke, so everybody’s riding for free,” one driver said at the time.

In addition to pointing out the lost revenue, drivers complained that the farebox issues made their jobs more stressful, distracting them from operating their vehicles.

The new fareboxes are made by Illinois — based Genfare, the same company which produced the old ones.

CobbLinc buses will now be outfitted with Genfare’s “Fast Fare” model, the “latest and greatest” technology available, said Cobb Transportation Director Drew Raessler.

Riders will still be able to use exact cash and coins to pay for their ride, though transfers to other routes will not be possible if paying in cash. Transfers are available for riders using Breeze cards or the Breeze Mobile app.

“From an equity standpoint, the cash collection is an important piece of that, because not everyone necessarily has access to a bank account or a breeze card,” Raessler said.

Raessler said the new system meets the need for interoperability across metro Atlanta’s different transit providers. Breeze cards and the Breeze Mobile app can be used to pay fare for CobbLinc, MARTA, Ride Gwinnett and the state’s Xpress commuter buses.

Equipment problems on the old fareboxes meant the county was foregoing an unknown amount of potential revenue. It also raised questions about the accuracy of ridership data CobbLinc reports to the federal government.

(Raessler previously noted, however, that the county made other efforts to collect reliable data, such as equipping buses with automated passenger counters and asking drivers to manually input passenger counts.)

While the full financial impact of the malfunctioning fareboxes was not clear, CobbLinc over the past decade has seen dwindling ridership, and therefore revenue. Operating costs have risen in that time, and the county hasn’t raised fares since 2011.

The combination of rising costs and shrinking ridership meant that in 2022, fares paid for just 7% of operating expenses, down from 20% in 2019.

CobbLinc cost the county $27.6 million to operate in 2022. Of that, $13.2 million came from federal dollars, $11.5 million came from the county government and $2.9 million was generated by fares and other direct revenue.

CobbLinc’s declining ridership and revenue have been central to the campaign against the county’s proposed 30-year, 1% transit tax.

On Nov. 5, Cobb residents will vote on the Mobility Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (M-SPLOST). If approved, it would collect $11 billion to construct 108 miles of rapid bus routes, half a dozen new transit centers and a countywide system of on-demand “microtransit” service.

Cobb’s sales tax rate would rise from 6% to 7%.

(Learn more: mdjonline.com/transit .)

Opponents of the transit tax have labeled the system a drain on county finances and argued low ridership shows a lack of appetite for transit investment in Cobb.

Supporters of the tax, meanwhile, say CobbLinc has been chronically underfunded, and argue a much enhanced public transportation system would attract far more riders.