Suprise Suprise a broken Charlie

Well it's finally here. I wondered how long it would take to happen. Coming out of the aquarium (fanieul hall) side i saw my first broken T gate using the new charlie card.

Instead of fixing it the T has put cones in front of both "turnstyles". Just makes me laugh it was not if but when.

I think the new system is great but I don't believe the T can maintain the new system.

Maybe they'll have to have the turnstyle vendor send one of their crews to fix it themselves.

I had a chance to stop in Aquarium yesterday to see if it was working, but the cool breeze was so nice I couldn't pass up the walk back up State St.

I would sure hope that these things have a really good service plan in place with the vendor. One thing I didn't notice at Airport when I was there, is, do these have a gate anywhere to bypass the faregates? I'm thinking worst case scenario, i.e., when 3/4 of the gates are broken, or there's a power outage, etc., how do you let people in and out of the station?

The Charlie gates are a work in progress. While the company that makes them has a bunch of experience in this field, these gates and vending machines are state of the art and unique to the T's requirements. They're already on a second generation of stripe readers to compensate for problems on the initial units.

Software updates are frequent and usually not visible on the vending machine screens. But Monday's update added Spanish to the menus, both written and spoken.

When the gates go out of service, they default to open. That's why you saw cones preventing anyone from going in for free. There was a repair tech on duty and he probably was at Airport getting parts if you didn't see him working on the problem. If power's out at the station, the gates default to open. If the fire alarms go off, the gates will open. For any other emergencies, both Inspectors and T police (still being trained) have access to controls to open all gates. In addition, there are padlocked openings in the metal gates surrounding the faregates.

Mike is absolutely right about giving these guys some time to work out the problems. The company is currently responsible for all repairs. Their techs and the T techs are teamed up in pairs and as time progresses, the T techs will be doing more of the repairs.

Very informative collector...

Anyone have pictures of the fare gates? I've only seen one angle and I'd like to see more so I can get a sense of the size of the gates. Is it possible for people to still jump the gates? I'd expect that they would be, but maybe the T did something right for once...

Jumping is doable, but much more difficult. Some stations will rate gates that are even higher than the ones at Airport and Aquarium, which will make jumping close to impossible unless you're a gymnast!

The alarms are in a "readjustment" stage, but will be there again shortly. CSAs and Inspectors are capable of clearing card jams and issueing a ticket to get you through if you have a problem.

Sorry, but I couldn't find the topic that originally discussed the Charlie Card and AFC, so this will have to do.

I just found out that Wonderland is next on the "Charlizing" of the stations. Maybe a few others too, I don't know.

I noticed that the gates don't close until one is well past them. I wonder if there is something to prevent two people from passing through at a time. Also, are there alarms or something that sound if one tries to manipulate them?