News

Cincinnati finally gets on the bus with city's first ticket vending kiosk

April 1, 2014

Cincinnati's Metro bus service has installed its first ticket vending machine at downtown Government Square, the agency announced recently.

"Metro came out of the dark ages of public transport," the Cincinnati Business Courier said of the move. Lack offunding is the reason Metro has taken so long to catch up  with major U.S. transit systems which have been offering ticket vending machines since the 1990's, according to the Business Courier.

The GFI Genfare ticket vending machine, supplied by the SPX Corp., offers Spanish-language translation, as well as braille and audio-translations for vision- and hearing-impaired customers.

The vending machine dispenses 30-day passes and stored-value cards. It accepts credit cards or exact amounts of cash, but not coins, and is under 24-hour video security surveillance.

Metro expects to install more ticket vending machines in the near future. Metro passes will continue to be sold at a dozen Cincinnati locations and online at www.go-metro.com.

Metro, which has a fleet of 392 vehicles and provides about 17 million rides per year in Greater Cincinnati, is a non-profit, tax-funded public service of the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority. About two-thirds of Metro's operating budget comes from local, state and federal tax revenue, and about one-third comes from fares paid by its customers — and it brings approximately 20 percent of downtown Cincinnati's workforce into the city — according to the agency's website.