Huge news for Los Angeles transportation today: you can now use a Metro TAP card to pay fares on all 26 transportation agencies in Los Angeles County—that's one plastic, microchipped card to get you on the bus from Long Beach to Santa Clarita, Montebello to Santa Monica, giving LA "the largest seamless transportation system in the nation," according to a press release. (Metrolink has paper tickets with a TAP chip so it's compatible with the system.) The unification comes with a new website, and vending machines have been redesigned to be easier to use too. TAP cards will apparently last 10 years, but they can also easily be replaced with all their value intact if they're stolen or lost.
And to celebrate, TAP cards are also getting new designs (by Metro's Design Studio) with "a new color scheme" and "scenic designs of LA County landscapes." Those will launch next month.
· Metro holds news event to celebrate all L.A. County transit agencies adopting TAP cards [The Source]
· taptogo.net [Official site]