The Strætó bus system’s new payment system, KLAPP, has gotten off to a shaky start, Vísir reports, with many users being denied entry because of a system glitch. Strætó promises major improvements to the system by early this coming week.
Strætó introduced KLAPP in late 2021, and gave riders until mid-March to swap in their old paper tickets for KLAPP credit; paper tickets stopped being accepted on March 1.
Strætó CEO Jóhannes Svavar Rúnarsson owned up to the frustrating system errors, saying that the difficulties are “both unexpected and expected, since this is a huge change.” Riders have taken to social media to complain about the issues—most often connection failures within the onboard scanners, which prevent tickets from being scanned. When this happens, befuddled riders are greeted by a red screen on the scanner, accompanied by an error message that reads: “☹Declined — No Valid Ticket.”
Jóhannes says the complaints have been heard loud and clear. “Yes, yes, we’ve heard plenty of dissatisfaction and understand it all too well. And we really regret that this didn’t just go [off without a hitch,] one, two, three. But these kind of things happen with these giant software systems,” he said.
According to information provided by Strætó, there have been between a few odd errors a day to as many as 20. In these instances, he says drivers have been directed to give riders the benefit of the doubt, but there have been a number of instances where people with valid tickets have not been allowed to board.
In addition to the onboard scanner problems, patrons have complained about shortcomings within the app’s functionality. It isn’t currently possible for users to plan their route or monitor bus location in real time in KLAPP, both of which were features in the previous Strætó app. Jóhannes says both omissions will be addressed in the coming week as well.
More information about KLAPP can be found on the system’s website, in English here.
