By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is set to roll out a smart card-based fare system. What's unique about the program is that it will take the fare system direct from paper tickets and tokens to the smart card. "Most transit agencies use mag stripe cards (before migrating to smart cards), but not so with Los Angeles," said Mark Kroncke, director of business development for the western region for Cubic Transportation Systems, the company developing the Los Angeles fare payment system. "L.A. is going from tokens and paper tickets right to smart cards.”