CharlieCard distribution

[xxv.livejournal.com]

Has anyone gotten a CharlieCard yet? I hear they were supposed to be handing them out to commuters today, but I didn't see anyone at Davis.

MBTA jargon note: CharlieCards are the RFID cards that you wave over the dark grey rectangles on the new turnstiles. CharlieTickets are the paper cards that jam the turnstiles. CharliePasses are the thin plastic cards (cleverly mislabeled "CharlieTicket") that they're deprecating.

Update: I think I made up the name "CharliePass", although I swear I saw it somewhere in the MBTA literature.
Update #2: Davis gets them starting tomorrow. Other stations get them at other times.

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

they were trying to give them out at Harvard Station this morning. I'm getting one through work, so I passed.

[ron_newman]

The schedule I've seen says they'll distribute CharlieCards at Davis tomorrow.

My monthly pass is paper, not plastic. I buy it from the machine each month.

[taxine.livejournal.com]

No one at Alewife this monring, either.

[kelmit.livejournal.com]

I had seen someone at Davis use an RFID card on Friday... don't know where he got it, though.

[ron_newman]

This ad says where the T will be distributing them each day. Davis and Alewife are tomorrow. I'm puzzled by the omission of Porter Square.

[ron_newman]

Might have been an employee, or someone with a handicap or senior pass.

[kelmit.livejournal.com]

ahhhh, in that case I'm almost certain it was a senior pass.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Schedule of pass distribution: http://www.mbta.com/pdf/CharlieCard_Dist_Ad_11_06.pdf (PDF link)

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Damn!

[ron_newman]

I'd love to use CharlieCard for next month's pass, but I can't. That's because I sometimes ride the commuter train from Porter to North Station, and the card isn't good on that yet. Supposed to be coming later next year. Meanwhile, I'll have to keep buying a "Zone 1A" CharlieTicket pass.

[xxv.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got a paper one this month too. An example of terrible misuse of naming, as it uses the CharlieTicket system (the new account numbering) and says "CharlieTicket" on the back. It does say "Combo Pass" on it, though.

[xxv.livejournal.com]

In an example of keen planning on the part of the MBTA, apparently you can't transfer your balance / pass to one of the new cards. Note their clever timing of releasing them 4 days into the month, to ensure that everyone already bought December's passes.

[ron_newman]

That is deliberate, actually. There are still about eight un-converted stations, so they don't want anyone using CharlieCard for monthly passes until those stations are finished.

[xxv.livejournal.com]

Off topic: As I can't find your contact info easily, you should contact me sometime regarding conlangs. People who know what they are are rare enough, let alone people who create them and are nearby :-)

[ron_newman]

Well, it is a CharlieTicket. You put it in the gate or the bus farebox exactly the same way as someone using a stored-value ticket. It's just a different kind of ticket.

[xxv.livejournal.com]

That doesn't logically follow, considering that conversions would be user-performed and optional. If someone doesn't use those stations, why should they care about their unconverted state? Much (all?) of the Greenline is unconverted, so why should I care about it?

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

My lj name at gmail will work.

[xxv.livejournal.com]

Then perhaps I'm simply misunderstanding their naming system and am making up the "CharliePass" name (though I swear I saw it somewhere, I can't seem to find it on their site).

[ron_newman]

I think they want to avoid a situation where someone buys a monthly pass on a CharlieCard, then shows up a few days later at (un-converted) Government Center station and can't use the pass. People don't always know what stations they might use later in the month.

Supposedly the Green Line trains will all be finished by next Monday.

This Wikipedia page is a collective effort to monitor the latest status of Charlie conversion systemwide.

[arachne8x.livejournal.com]

You shouldn't care about it, but the MBTA should, since if I make a mistake and then suddenly can't use my new charlie card at a T-station, there is no way for me to prove that I have the balance on my card, or a pass for that matter, and then I can't use the train and am going to raise a fuss. It is user-performed but not necessarily by informed users.

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

Regarding the name of the Charlie Card, you're not wrong - I've had literature at work and they listed it as the "Link Pass" in more than once instance. It really confused me for a good while there.

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

PS. The RFID is the Charlie Card while the paper copy is the Charlie Ticket. Previously no one had the Charlie Card except an employee, or someone with a handicap or senior pass.

[ckd]

At least Porter makes some sense since folks who are connecting to/from the commuter rail won't be able to use them. That doesn't explain why they're doing it at Back Bay and Malden Center, though. (Especially since Back Bay will have them at the pass sales office.)

I wonder if they're skipping some stops based on the level of pass usage; I suspect Kendall/MIT, for example, is sufficiently heavy on employer pass program folks that they don't think the need for "retail" CharlieCards is as high as other locations.m

[xxv.livejournal.com]

Careful there, there's no space between "Charlie" and "Card" (http://www.mbta.com/insidethet/press_releases_details.asp?ID=1297) ;-)

Interesting about the "Link Pass".

[xxv.livejournal.com]

They had the same problem with the CharlieTickets, but seemed to get by well enough. I suppose they weren't handing out blank ones for free, though.