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Comment by il | Hacker News Reader

I think a big part of the value of Clipper to Caltrain is to increase revenues from people who forget to tag off. You're looking at this from an engineering perspective, but not from the business perspective. Breakage is a huge revenue driver for many industries(think of gift cards), and a monopoly like Caltrain is a great fit for implementing a system like this.

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Yes, forgetting to tag off sucks, but a conspiracy to nickel and dime you? Really? How exactly is caltrain a monopoly? And if it is one, fares pay less than 50% of their revenue, with a large fraction coming from government grants. So it would be a government supported monopoly on those tracks, where a private service is probably not cost effective. So be glad that the government is subsidizing keeping you off the 101.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here.

Caltrain is a monopoly because there's not another competing train running alongside it that can take you to the same place.

Caltrain is a monopoly because it's effectively impossible to obtain the permits to build additional track in California.

Key difference: the lack of a competitor doesn't make a monopoly. The inability to compete is what makes an organization a monopoly in its space.

Caltrain does not have a monopoly to get from A to B. Soon there will be a BART connection from SF to SJ. So for those traveling the full route, there will be competition via 'tracks'.

For local service there is also overlap with BART on the north end, and with VTA on the south end. So, there is competition.

Plus you could also drive. There are also shuttle services that are competing to move commuters, and not all of those are subsidized by employers.

I completely agree and curse Caltrain every time I pay $12.75 for a $4.75 ride. Thinking about it, I'd probably save money buying oneway tickets as much as I forget to "tag off".

AFAIK, companies don't get to just keep unclaimed gift cards money. They have to give it to the government.

But now that I think about it, I'm not sure how never-expiring gift cards work..

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