Universal Transit Farecard Standards (UTFS)Task Force

Tom Parker (TF Chair), BART

Greg Garback (Spec. Ind. Liaison), WMATA

Carol Wise (Operations Chair), COTA

Tom Peacock, APTA

Henry Rosen (Fare Media Chair), PATH

Leisa Moniz, Volpe

Joe Simonetti (Fare Media Vice-Chair), Metavante

Rick Barrett (Fin Mgmt Vice-Chair), Quattran

Tim Weisenberger, Volpe

Dave Phelps, APTA

There will be no votes that in the IP Policy recirculation ballot if the policy is not revised to allow royalty fees on IP included in the program standards.

After lengthy discussion, the leadership unanimously agreed to recommended to the Rail CEO Steering Committee that the IP Policy remain as developed- that is with no royalty fees allowed. APTA agreed with this position.

Action Item: Greg Garback will investigating how the Dept of Defense deals with IP in the Common Access Card program.

Dave Phelps stated that there has been an impasse in the resolution of IP Policy comments. Two vendors have asserted that they have significant issue with the royalty-free stance of the policy and would cast a no vote in the recirculation ballot. Dave stated that it is APTA staff’s recommendation (specifically his and Tony Kouneski’s) to allow royalty fees for IP included in the program deliverables with a no-royalty fee option available. Dave stated that this is standard practice in other standards bodies such as ANSI and IEEE, from which this policy was derived.

Dave cited several reasons for the suggestion he made to revise the policy the vendors’ positions, chiefly:

1.It would attain a unanimous vote

2. It would ensure that the state of the art was included in the standard.

These were discussed at length and determined that there was doubt to the validity of the points and certainly not strong enough to revise the policy to allow inclusion of royalty fees.

The group stated that this was very unexpected and that the policy has been in development for 1-11/2 years with the idea that it would not allow royalty-fees for any IP asserted. It was pointed out that all the public transit agencies supported this as well as the majority of vendors. Tom Peacock joined the meeting a bit late and when apprised of the issue, agreed that it would be counter-productive to reverse course now.

Greg Garback took on the action item of investigating how the Dept of Defense deals with IP in the Common Access Card program.

The leadership unanimously recommended to APTA staff that the program leadership and staff advisors recommend to the rail CEO Steering Committee that the IP Policy remain as developed- that is with no royalty fees allowed. APTA staff supported the position and stated that it is the Task Force leadership’s role to make this recommendation.

Operations Committee Steering Committee developed an RFP for consulting support that was delivered to APTA staff in March

Due to a budget shortfall, the RFP will be reduced to $40K and will be 24 calendar weeks in duration. A phased approach will be used. If all work cannot be performed within the $40K budget, further phases can be directed if funds are available.

The APTA Bus CEOs Committee will be approached to gain monetary support. Tom Parker will engage Bill Mooney of CTA and must develop a "sales pitch".

Carol gave a brief history of the struggle of the committee as well as the establishment of a steering committee with new goals and the generation of an RFP for a consultant support contract. This contract was submitted to APTA in March.

APTA staff and Tom Parker stated that they are making several recommendations regarding the RFP do to a $60K budget shortfall that exists. The budget was set without knowledge that Operations Committee would need a $75K contract. Tit was suggested that the content should remain as is, but that the work be phased so that the first phase fits within the budget and that subsequent phases would be awarded on a discretionary basis (based on funds available). Dave made specific comments:

1. Mandate that the prospective bidders review the entire work plan.
2. Couple the RFP deliverables to the work plan deliverables
3. Change the 24weeks of effort to a 24 calendar week duration to complete work
4. Change the contract amount to $40K

Dave thought that perhaps a vendor will bid to perform the entire package of work within the $40K budget. If not, the respondents could bid on what they could perform within the $40K budget and the other deliverables would be optional and at the discretion of APTA/Task Force leadership to fund if funds are available.

Tom peacock asked if this was the most efficient use of limited funds. He sees that travel reimbursement and face-to-face meetings are achieving results. If the RFP is more important, we can trim budget from these items. There was general agreement that he meetings and travel reimbursement are efficient uses of available funds.

Carol reiterated that the RFP was structured to complete deliverables by the end of 2004. She stated that if the budget for the RFP is scaled back, not all deliverables will be complete in that timeframe.

Tom Parker stated that Tom Margro directed him to secure funding from the Bus CEOs committee. Tom also stated that Tony Kouneski and he are developing a method for engaging them. Joe Simonetti suggested that Bill Mooney is now on the Bus and since he is a champion of the program, he should be engaged. Tom stated that he needed to develop a "sales pitch" for he and Bill to use.

The bottom line is that the Operations Committee RFP must be phased due to lack of funding. Tom directed the committee to review Dave Phelps’ comments and when complete, the RFP can be advertised.

The Fare Media Committee next meets on June 21

The "Farecard Procurement Procedures" document final comments due today. Committee will discuss at their next meeting.

The Magnetics WG approved the ISO 15457 standard as a baseline for their document. Data elements must be developed.

Henry reported: that the next Fare Media Committee meeting would be June 21. The primary purpose would be to review the Farecard Procurement Procedures document.. Specific Work Group activities:

Research WG- completed "Trends" document

The Procedural WG "Farecard Procurement Procedures" document is in final comment resolution. Paula Faust submitted updated document with comment resolution form for committee review. Hopefully all comments can be resolved and a vote called on the June 21 call.

The Magnetic WG approved the use of the ISO 15457 standard as a baseline for their document. Data elements must be developed in coordination with WP teams. The next work group call is next week.

Business Process WG- Deliverable in final edit. Rick B. reviewing APTA comments.

Systems WG- Developing a consolidated deliverable schedule and coordinating a program glossary.

Work Package progress:

• WP1- is close to completion of smart card data elements.
• WP2 has not been formed, but a leader must be found and members solicited.
• WP3- Deliverable to be complete in December ‘04. Coordination of WP3 security goals and those of WP1 and WP4 is ongoing.
• WP4- Working on the functional description document. Interim report of finding of Booz Allen is in. Awaiting response from Translink and WMATA on use of their documents.

Identification of a baseline doc for systems specs development is a key to completion of the WP4 deliverable. Some technical writing may be necessary in the future to finalize system spec

Deliverable Schedule:

WP1 and WP3- complete in 2004

WP2- still to be manned up

WP4- TBD, based on BAH study

Rick reported:

Business Process Work Group

The white paper document is complete and in final edit. Rick is in process of reviewing APTA comments and will finalize with Gabrielle B.

Systems WG

Systems WG is developing a consolidated schedule for work deliverables. Also underway is coordination of a program glossary. Tim W. is leading in this coordination. Additionally, the WG is monitoring the progress of the work package teams.

Work Package 1 is close to completion of smart card data elements. Coordination necessary with Magnetic Fare Media WG.

WP2 has not been formed, but a leader must be found and members solicited. At this point it is an internal Fin Mgmt Comm. issue. TF leadership does not need to get involved.

WP3 has a goal of completion of a security guideline document by the end of the year. There must be coordination of what this team does and what security work must be included in WP1 and WP4. Coordination is ongoing.

WP4 is working on the functional description document. The interim report of finding of Booz Allen is in. The final report is expected in one month. If a baseline document cannot be identified in this report, the WP4 team will have a longer, more difficult job developing technical specs. There may be a need to engage technical writing assistance to complete the technical specs document. It was noted that David McIlwraith is leaving ERG and joining BAH. There is a June target date for WP1 final draft card specification document. David has offered to step down as leader, but the WP4 team didn’t feel this was necessary.

Tom Peacock asked if there was a "gut reaction" to the interim BAH study. Rick replied that it was too early for one. Leisa noted that all document studied are not in the current report. Specifically a WMATA source document and a Translink source document are still not included pending IP related issues being resolved.

Joe Simonetti asked if interim deliverables from the WP teams are available. Rick stated that WP4’s can be. WP 1 and 3 are still internal to the teams at this point.

Deliverable Schedule:

WP1 and WP3- complete in 2004

WP2- still to be manned up

WP4- TBD, based on BAH study

Two Pending action items for the UTFS leadership:

1. Framing the agreement between the IAB and APTA
2. A position on how to work with the financial industry

There is an interesting I-95 Corridor Coalition project to observe, the Northern Shenandoah Valley Public Mobility Program

Next Steps in IAB Coordination:

1. Frame common issues
2. Share technical outputs
3. Formalize relationship memorandum of understanding or similar tool

Next Steps in Financial Industry Outreach/Cooperation:

1. Explore options to work together from a business standpoint and a technical standpoint
2. Effectively reach out to the financial sector to establish more formal collaborative relationships.
1. M/C, Visa, AMEX
2. Key banks

Action Item: Greg took on the action item of developing a 1-page business plan for the leadership team to review

Greg reported that there are two action items pending for the TF leaders:

1. Framing the agreement between the IAB and APTA
2. A position on how to work with the financial industry

Greg stated that there is an interesting project in the I-95 Corridor Coalition in the Northern Shenandoah Valley Public Mobility Program. It entails

• Integrated paratransit service delivery - smart card based
• Integrated back-end system for
• Service delivery for routes and appropriate vehicles
• Address special needs of passengers; confidentiality
• Billing appropriate supporting agencies for trips

It will be monitored on the state of Virginia’s ITS website and the I-95 CC website. Greg will provide those links.

IAB Coordination

The IAB has formally established a link with APTA at technical and policy levels, but a formal agreement is needed. This memorandum of understanding would describe how the two groups would work together.

The thought from transit is that there would be a transit application on a government credential. Greg has arranged a meeting on June 9 with Tony Cieri (IAB), Sean Ricketson (FTA), and Bill Menser (DOT). Tim has an action item due of developing a one-page draft of an MOU by Monday. This should include points such as aligning technology solutions, aligning development efforts and sharing goals and objectives.

Greg asked for input from the group on how to approach the June 9 meeting. Discussion ensued resulting in suggestions to propose a joint task force with shared deliverables, to propose a pilot project entailing loading a transit application on a government credential and exploring any help the IAB could provide on Intellectual Property issues. With respect to the last point, it was noted that the IAB includes pre-approved vendors for government credential projects such as Maximus, Accumen, and Northrup.

The next steps are:

1. Frame common issues
2. Share technical outputs
3. Formalize relationship memorandum of understanding or similar tool

Financial Sector Coordination

Greg stated that there is significant interest from financial sector in public transport. There are contactless payment systems from AEXP, MC and VISA and member banks jumping on bandwagon. In short, there is partnership potential

Greg stated there were two issues related to financial sector coordination:

1. From a UTFS standpoint, there must be parallel paths. Must be able to work together from a business standpoint and a technical standpoint
1. Need to overcome technical and operational barriers
2. Share work products and specifications
2. How to do outreach with the financial sector. How does UTFS reach M/C, Visa, AMEX, as well as key banks and establish more formal collaborative relationships

Joe Simonetti stated that Greg’s points were appropriate; they must understand transit first. The WMATA pilot with Citibank was discussed as a good learning ground. Joe also stated that specific next steps must be agreed to. Discussion centered on developing a schedule of visiting various financial industry organizations for one-on-one meetings.

Greg took on the action item of developing a 1-page business plan for the leadership team to review.