Charlie cards

[bgum.livejournal.com]

So whose idea was it to make the Charlie cards (which supposedly will be universal in a year) so that they don't work at turnstile gates (e.g. Davis, Porter)?

I bought a $5 (4 swipes) ticket at Prudential, but when I tried to use it to go to work the next day, lo and behold, I had to jump the turnstile. They do have what look like magnetic strips to swipe with, but they, like many things with the MBTA, don't work.

Or am I the only one having such luck?

Comments

[ckd]

If you buy a (monthly; I'm not sure about the weekly) pass on a CharlieTicket, it will work at the old turnstiles.

You can't use the declining value cards at the turnstiles, though, because those don't have the equipment to update the card balance.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the transition.

[pyrric.livejournal.com]

The TAP monthly passes, despite looking exactly like the monthly Charlie passes (including the magnetic strip), only work in the new machines. At stations with old turnstiles, I still have to show the pass to the person in the little booth before I can get in.

[ron_newman]

Porter and Davis are going to be among the last stations to convert, late this year. The T wants to completely finish the conversion by the end of 2006.

[ursamajor]

They are? Boo. :P (Curious, where'd you see this? I had a quick look through the MBTA news page, but didn't find it.)

His fate is still unlearn'd

[dmaze]

Also remember that the first station to be converted was Airport. "I'm in from out of town, I'm planning to take the T around; how does it work? Aah, I buy one of these ticket things, I'll put four trips worth on it"...and then you discover that it works nowhere else in the system. More recently, clueful housemate was going to Braintree, and knew that she needed extra tokens to get off there and that her subway pass wouldn't do the trick, except that Braintree is a Charlie station and the machines there wouldn't take her otherwise-useless tokens.

The ne.transportation newsgroup has been complaining about the Charlie implementation since it was in the naming stage. I haven't seen a whole lot in mbta on the subject, but that also tends to be a lot quieter (and to my knowledge doesn't have lurking Globe reporters).

Re: His fate is still unlearn'd

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

The apparent inability to use a token to buy or add to a Charlie card is particularly galling. This would at least make tokens the lowest common denominator until the conversion was finished.

Re: His fate is still unlearn'd

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

The machines that take cash to spit out a Charlie ticket apparently take tokens (I have not yet tried this as I never end up going in-bound from Kendall; but the signage on those machines now says "Cash or token")

The MBTA differentiates between Charlie tickets and Charlie Cards; Charlie cards will be prox-cards that will make it faster for regular commuters as you will just wave (or touch, I'm not sure) rather than having to feed in or out.

In the meantime the MBTA has very confusing lingo, since both the monthly passes and the add value passes are called "Charlie Tickets" but only one of them works in unconverted stations.

[ron_newman]

In any station that has been converted, you can buy a Charlie Ticket with a token.

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but the other day at Haymerket they had 6 machines. Only 3 of the 6 took tokens (the other 3 were credit only). Out of the 3 that accepted tokens, one was out of order. So there were only two stations that accepted tokens. Each one had a loooong line that was filled with people that had no idea how to use the machines. It took me about a half hour just to get my friggin' ticket!

And then, of course, my favorite part: all the litter in the stations from all the tickets. Could they have possibly found a more wasteful method?

I mean, really, what was wrong with the tokens?

[mattdm [typekey.com] (from livejournal.com)]

The plan is to switch to a complicated scheme where you pay different amounts depending on which station you get on and off at. That is, a new way to raise fares without actually saying "hey guys! another fare hike". That'd be hard with tokens.

[ron_newman]

No, the plan is actually to have a single uniform (but higher) fare, removing all of the current differences between stations. You'll notice that there is no provision for inserting a fare card when exiting a station.

[transformergeek.livejournal.com]

Then why wouldn't they just stick with the tokens and raise the price a bit?

[ron_newman]

Because another part of the fare-increase proposal introduces automatic free transfers between buses and subways (like NYC has with their Metrocard).

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

The new machines can't possibly be more expensive than machines that hand out paper transfers whenever you leave a train station or bus...

It seems to me the new system would be completely compatible with different prices for rush hour and non-rush hour? (I'm not saying that's been in any of the proposals, just musing.)

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

As someone who does the bus-subway thing on a regular basis, I have wondered why there is no transfer between the two.

The Green Line construction proved it possible. They just had a machine at Government Center, right as you left, that you could hit a button on that was a valid transfer to their crappy Green Line shuttle to Lechmere. I think the transfer was good for two hours or something.

[mistergoat.livejournal.com]

I don't think that that's definite, Ron. Last I saw, the T had made some vague statements that left the door open to variable fares. It's certainly been in the dicsussion. If they've formally ruled it out and I missed it, I'd love to see the statement, though!

[mattdm [typekey.com] (from livejournal.com)]

Possibly. They've certainly kicked around the variable-rate thing, and it was specifically given several times as one of the advantages of the charlie card system.

[abilouise.livejournal.com]

I've also heard that the charlie ticket/card/whatever will reduce shrinkage in the form of t personnel pocketing wads of cash that they personally handle by having it go through a machine that counts it or something.