King County Metro has decided to abandon plans to install ORCA readers at its rear doors to speed up boarding due to technical complications, Seattle Transit Blog reports. The change---currently, riders can only tap their ORCA cards at the front bus entrance---would have saved Metro an estimated 100 service hours a day, service hours that could have been invested in additional bus service throughout the system.

Metro's explanation, in effect, is that given that Metro's complicated fare structure---fares vary based on time of day, zone, and type of rider---requires drivers to interact directly with the ORCA reader.

STB suggests a few potential solutions. My favorite: Instituting a "tap on, tap off" system like the one already in use on Link Light Rail---is my favorite, both because it encourages riders who pay by the ride to tap off (by initially charging the maximum rate and deducting it when a passenger gets off the bus) and because it would force people to become familiar with the ORCA system, which, anecdotally, seems to confound many light rail riders.

Other possibilities include letting riders select destination zones themselves (which light rail riders who use monthly ORCA passes or tickets already do), instituting a countywide flat fare, or have riders pay when they exit, as they already do under the (soon to be abolished) ride-free area. That idea, STB notes dryly, "is incompatible with a proof-of-payment system since passengers don’t pay until they’re done riding." In other words, it's a recipe for fare evasion.