{"id":147239,"date":"2026-01-24T02:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/147239\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T02:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:18:09","slug":"clipper-2-0-off-to-a-rocky-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/147239\/","title":{"rendered":"Clipper 2.0 off to a rocky start"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest update to the Clipper transit payment system was supposed to make things easier<\/a> for travelers in the Bay, like consolidating transfers and allowing for credit card tapping. So far, the rollout has been plagued by operational problems that are making some people so upset they\u2019re venting on social media.<\/p>\n

The Clipper system serves BART, AC Transit, and 22 other Bay Area transit systems, with more than 1.2 million cards in use in December 2025, the last month for which Clipper data is available. The highest number of unique Clipper cards used in a month in recent years was 1.37 million in June 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the Clipper Card upgrade rolled out on December 10, users have been venting to The Oaklandside. Some people have said they\u2019ve been unable to access the digital cash balance they had before the upgrade; others have said their cards became inoperable or they had difficulty adding money to them.<\/p>\n

John Goodwin, a press officer for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, acknowledged a raft of card issues and said Clipper engineers have been working to fix them. The MTC manages the Clipper Card program through a vendor, Concord-based Cubic Transportation Systems<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Goodwin said that there are several \u201cbuckets\u201d of issues the agency and Cubic Transportation are facing, but insisted that \u201cmany of the issues customers have encountered appear to be either unique or limited to small groups of customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

A critical one is poor system performance. Goodwin said that Cubic\u2019s customer relationship management system, called a CRM, has experienced several outages since the update, making it impossible for some people to access their accounts via the Clipper mobile app or website. The Clipper call center, where customers can turn for help, has also gone down intermittently.<\/p>\n

\"\"Customers have also complained about issues with card vending machines. Credit: Clippercard.com<\/p>\n

\u201cCubic continues to investigate and is working on fixes to CRM data queries and its server configuration,\u201d Goodwin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another key issue, he said, is malfunctioning card vending machines and terminals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said San Francisco riders have reported performance issues with Muni ticket machines to the agency. Goodwin said that the Muni machines are expected to receive a software update that should fix these problems soon.<\/p>\n

Botched card migration<\/p>\n

More than half a million Clipper cards have been migrated to the new system, the MTC\u2019s Goodwin has said, but Cubic is still doing extensive manual cleanup of card data that has failed to migrate properly. Goodwin said that, for now, bulk migration of customer accounts is on hold until Cubic fully resolves these issues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another key issue, Goodwin said, is malfunctioning card vending machines and terminals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said multiple agencies have told the MTC that some customers have been unable to register or add money to older Clipper cards and that several transit agencies are \u201cnot currently able to replace lost, stolen, or damaged Clipper cards.\u201c<\/p>\n

People with these issues should visit clippercard.com to order a replacement card, Goodwin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, some people who automatically reload money onto their Clipper cards every month have found that system simply isn\u2019t working<\/a>. As this snafu impacts some of the Bay Area\u2019s most loyal and consistent users of public transportation, they have been among the most vocal about their frustrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Goodwin confirmed that the pass auto-reload function was \u201cnot working consistently for migrated or new monthly passes\u201d and that the Clipper staff is in the process of developing instructions for customers and for transit agencies.<\/p>\n

One Reddit user, vanwyngarden<\/a>, who told us that her name was Hope and lives in San Francisco, hasn\u2019t been able to see her purchase history for more than a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t submit my reimbursement request at work\u2026 it is absolutely insane to me how this is allowed. I am so fired up,\u201d she posted<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hope said people like her who can\u2019t access their passes can end up paying a full fare every two hours if they move around the Bay Area. \u201cI just paid nearly $7 today already because I transferred a few minutes past the cutoff of having paid this morning after being late, rushing to try and figure out how I could get the pass,\u201d she said. \u201cI just gave up.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said reps answering calls at Clipper\u2019s customer service phone line at 1-877-878-8883 take a long time to pick up the phone and solve customers\u2019 problems, if they\u2019re able to at all. Goodwin did suggest that people continue to call that number for help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Goodwin said that it was true that some people were not seeing their cash balance on their app or website, but he said that didn\u2019t mean the balance had gone away. The data containing people\u2019s past payments is still in the \u201clegacy back office\u201d of the old system, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rub is that the new Customer Service Center does not have direct access to the legacy system,\u201d he said. \u201cThese issues must be investigated and fixed with assistance from Cubic,\u201d he noted. \u201cThis bespoke process can be time-consuming, which is why bulk migration from the original system to the next-gen system has not yet begun.\u201d<\/p>\n

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