Coming Soon to Commuter Services: Smart Cards!

The new ORCA Smart Cards are on their way--one step at a time

In the not-too-distant future, all UW employees and students will have smart cards. These new UW IDs will be a single key to all things UW—photo ID, Husky Card Account, and library card—together with a computer chip that will carry your U-PASS information, allowing you to access multiple transit options with a single card.

When the program is implemented, your U-PASS sticker will be replaced with a smart card containing a microchip that communicates with card reader equipment. Smart cards, unlike magnetic stripe cards, can carry all necessary functions and information on the card. Therefore, they do not require access to remote databases at the time of the transaction.

The move to Smart Cards, which will occur in measured steps over the next two years, has already begun.

You may not have noticed until now, but you didn’t receive a new employee validation sticker in September 2006. In previous years, sometime near the start of the academic year, current employees received a new dated sticker to affix to the front of their Husky Card validating it for the next year. Well, goodbye validation sticker. They are the first things to be left behind in the move to Smart Card.

Milestones to watch for in 2007 include the following:

• Beginning on March 12, 2007, newly hired employees and current employees replacing a lost Husky Card will be issued a picture-ID Husky Card (but one that does not yet include the "smart card" chip). Based on their employer, new employees and current employees replacing a lost or stolen card will obtain their Husky Card in person at the ID Center in Odegaard or at the satellite ID-issuing centers at UWMC or Harborview. (Check Husky Card Project for details.)
• As early as late fall of 2007, the ID Center will begin the process of issuing picture ID cards with the embedded "smart card" chip to current employees. The ID Center aims to replace all old employee cards with the new "Smart Card" by the time the transit agencies "go live" with the Smart Card system sometime in 2008.

While UW is working to make sure everyone gets their Husky Card replaced by a picture ID with the Smart Card chip, U-PASS will stay out of the fray. The U-PASS stickers you’ve come to know and love will continue to be required on the back of ID cards until Metro, Sound Transit and the other participating transit agencies until the start of Smart Card fare operation sometime in 2008.

Remember, the move to Smart Card is scheduled to occur through a series of steps over time. It is possible, as the new system replaces the old, that a glitch or two may sneak through. If you experience difficulty using your UW ID card due to questions regarding the validation date or encounter other problems with the new card system, contact the Husky Card Account and ID Center manager, Sherry Ocshner, at 543-7222 or sherro@u.washington.edu.

U-PASS ORCA Test

As a step toward implementation of the Smart Card system, the transit agencies conducted a system-wide test of the ORCA Smart Cards during the first half of January 2007. During the test period, card readers were installed on selected routes and volunteers tagged their ORCA test card to the card readers when they paid their fare. Thank you to the group of UW students, faculty and staff who volunteered to help test the U-PASS interface with the ORCA system.

Find Out More

Read more about the campus- wide smart card transitions on the Housing and Food Services website:
http://hfs.washington.edu/husky_card/default.aspx?id=953

UWEEK: Bye-bye sticker: Husky Card is getting smart
http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/uweek/uweekarticle.asp?articleID=26783