Charlie Card Machines At SS

hah - no worries, I meant it more of general commentary than attacking you...

I actually thinkinging how stubborn people are to change. As a management student in Boston it's kinda interesting to watch people complain about it like its just going to go away...

JS

They are also installing them at Quincy Adams, and are already in service at Braintree and Savin Hill.

The message (rather, rant) board on boston.com about the fare increase had some funny comments about the AFC process...

One person (who posted several rants about the condition of Davis station, so I presume that's where they ride from) went on a tirade about how the Charlie Card was "useless" cause it still "has to be swiped on a turnstile that doesn't read it half the time -- the T should have bought those ones that pull the card in and then pop it back out."

Um, gee, did you think that maybe they haven't gotten to Davis Sq. with them yet?

With the news that they are raising the rates and they seem to keep using the NYC system as an example, why can't they seem to get it thru their heads, One System - One Fare! The amount of time they take configuring all these special exits fares/warrants/transfers, etc, and NYC has a surplus in their coffers...hmmmmmmmm, something tells me someone is doing band-aid management and not looking at long term answers. This should have been considered maybe ten years ago... One System - One Fare!

Well as for the configuration of the exit devices at Braintree, they just put in the same gates but backwards and disabled the sensor that opens when you go throught the other way (the normal "free exit" way). With rumors on the table of exit fare being eliminated in the next fare hike, they would just have to turn the gates around.

The rest, like the warrants and stuff, is all software based on these new gates. Unlike the old equipment, it isn't hard to reprogram it to do something different or add a new button to the vending machine to sell a new type of pass or something. As we all know with the old vending machines not only did they not work, but they couldnt' really be modified either.

At least when it's done we'll be ahead of NYC... they are only in the planning stages of a Smart Card system.

JS

It took ten years to roll out Metrocard in NYC. "One City - One Fare' happened about 2/3 of the way through that rollout.

If you noticed that I changed it to one system - one fare. I do realize that NYC's MTA covers just the city & boroughs, where as the T covers Riverside/Braintree, etc... but it would be nice to modify, simplify and update the system.

According to signs at South Station today, the new gates will be active on Monday 3/6 at South Station. When I was there today they had the gates in what appeared to be functional state on the old entrance that has been closed for a while, but still turnstiles on the "main" entrance. Not sure if they plan to do both for a while or a complete cutover by Monday. Either way, be ready for a delay as people learn to read directions and put their passes in with the arrow pointing toward the machine.

sabourinj wrote:According to signs at South Station today, the new gates will be active on Monday 3/6 at South Station. When I was there today they had the gates in what appeared to be functional state on the old entrance that has been closed for a while, but still turnstiles on the "main" entrance. Not sure if they plan to do both for a while or a complete cutover by Monday. Either way, be ready for a delay as people learn to read directions and put their passes in with the arrow pointing toward the machine.

And it's now OFFICIAL!!

Finally the CharlieGates are now active and working, so next time I go ther, I will no longer have to dig around my pants pocket to find those stupid coind and perhaps dropping them..

Now, the Mr. helium (topic originator) can be happy about it, and so the rest of us, since we are all in the same page.

Well Charlie arrived @ South Station today... only the old smaller
entrance that has been closed for some time is active for entrance.
The side where the turnstiles were is under construction to install the
new gates but they were allowing people to exit that direction, making
the transition easier.

To their credit there was someone at every other gate to show you what
way to put your passes in, along with a new sticker put over the gate
which seems like a good idea to help people get it right (at least when
there isn't a crowd pushing you through it). I stuck around for maybe
10 minutes and saw a few angry faces, but a bunch of smiling once that
I hadn't expected. I also talked to one of the T employees inside was
helping direct people once they made it through, who was suprisingly
quite friendly. I asked him if he knew why they hadn't put up signs
with more details (like a "Put your CharlieTicket in this way" sign
last week might have helped at least a few people that read it). He
said they were told more info went out, including the MBTA website
(which to this minute has no note that CharlieTickets are even accepted
@ SS, let alone that they were coming today...)


I think it's a big step though. To date this is the most visible
"local/commuter" station so combined with the passes now being labled
CharlieTickets, people may start to know about it instead of be in
total shock.

Guess we'll need a new CharlieTicket implimentation thread now that this one's done...