CharlieCard / Ticket discussion

From 1975 until some time in the late 1990s, you entered North Station through turnstiles in a small headhouse at the corner of Canal and Causeway Street. You could then (a) wait at the surface loop (later stub-end terminal) for a Green Line car, (b) climb stairs to the elevated Green Line platforms, or (c) go down stairs to the Orange Line subway.

There were also exit-only gates from the outbound elevated Green Line platform to a stairway leading to Causeway Street (via the Old Boston Garden building). After the Canal Street stub-end terminal was demolished and Superstation construction began in earnest, these exit-only gates were replaced by full turnstiles, with a token booth. The old Canal Street headhouse remained for Orange Line access only. That's when the free transfers (temporarily) ended.

Ron Newman wrote:From 1975 until some time in the late 1990s, you entered North Station through turnstiles in a small headhouse at the corner of Canal and Causeway Street. You could then (a) wait at the surface loop (later stub-end terminal) for a Green Line car, (b) climb stairs to the elevated Green Line platforms, or (c) go down stairs to the Orange Line subway.

There were also exit-only gates from the elevated Green Line platform to a stairway leading to Causeway Street (via the Old Boston Garden building). After the Canal Street stub-end terminal was demolished and Superstation construction began in earnest, these exit-only gates were replaced by full turnstiles, with a token booth. The old Canal Street headhouse remained for Orange Line access only. That's when the free transfers (temporarily) ended.

Actually there was a short period of time during the construction where you could still transfer. There was a staircase down from the end of the inbound platform that took you into the headhouse and down to the orange line. The transfer was eliminated when they eventually demolished the original headhouse.

Hmmm
Once commuter rail has the card, what are the odds there will be free commuter rail to subway transfers? That would be nice.
Also, how would the card work on the train? Like the amount you pay depends on where you get on AND off...? will they put some sort of turnstyles... somewhere? Orrr what?

The amount you pay now on the commuter rail DOES depend where you get on or off. My best guess is that the reason AFC won't be implemented on the commuter rail for a couple more years is (a) they need to develop/test a wireless device that will generate tickets using origin/destination information for the variety of fare classes available (student/family/senior/roundtrip/oneway/surcharge/interzone), and (b) such a device will need to be hand-held for the use of the conductors, and (c) it will need to be able to validate and appropriately deduct a fare from a CharlieCard with value. I would imagine that in cases where the passenger doesn't have a Card the conductor can still take cash, but with a surcharge, and that machines to load up the CharlieCard will be installed at stations throughout the system.

As for transfers from CR to Subway, I see that as very likely, as the MBTA has always supported the intermodal use of its network. But Subway to CR?? Maybe with a CharlieCard they'll give $2.50 off the base fare from Boston (I say $2.50 because that is likely what a subway ride will cost by the time they implement AFC on the Commuter Rail!).

(Superstation construction time)
I think there was a brief time when paper tickets were issued for Green Line Orange Line transfer at North Station after the paid area stairways and passageways were removed. This procedure was short lived since the ticket issuing machines were frequently out of order or "sold out".

For Charlie Cards on commuter rail, there could be a discount fare or implied combo fare for continuous trips taken using both commuter rail and subway.

Disney Guy wrote:(Superstation construction time)
I think there was a brief time when paper tickets were issued for Green Line Orange Line transfer at North Station after the paid area stairways and passageways were removed. This procedure was short lived since the ticket issuing machines were frequently out of order or "sold out".

For Charlie Cards on commuter rail, there could be a discount fare or implied combo fare for continuous trips taken using both commuter rail and subway.

Also, I think they will increase the Commuter Rail fares but if people pay with a charliecard, they will still pay the old rate. It's just like how if the commuter rail stops at a zone 1 stop, the price is $1.70, the same as a ride on the subway with a charliecard.

Does this thread _Really_ need 1637 replies...

I don't understand what you're getting at. I'm not sure why a fruitful discussion should be avoided.

artman wrote:Does this thread _Really_ need 1637 replies...

No, not really, but it was the decision of the board admins that all fare-related questions be posted in this behemoth of a thread. If you want a more focused discussion, the Transit History forum has an MBTA Fare forum dedicated to the topic, with individual threads for individual issues.

ags wrote:

artman wrote:Does this thread _Really_ need 1637 replies...

No, not really, but it was the decision of the board admins that all fare-related questions be posted in this behemoth of a thread. If you want a more focused discussion, the Transit History forum has an MBTA Fare forum dedicated to the topic, with individual threads for individual issues.

Where is "transit history" forum? No forum by that name in RR.net, and I goggled transit history and came up with nothing that refers to MBTA.

Jon

You should investigate this thread: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... =65&t=8655

Now please no more OFF topic discussion! Thanks

BradWalt wrote:

jalexan5 wrote:jalexan5: Does anyone know how to transfer stored value from a charlie ticket to the charlie cards?

jscola30: Saw something in the starts and stops about this, you can't. Sorry

One MBTA agent confirmed that I couldn't do it at the FVM, but they could do it at a "Pass Sales Office" ...

I knew I wasn't alone in wanting a FVM to transfer stored value from a CharlieTicket to a CharlieCard. I put that as a suggestion on the MBTA website last year, but never got a reply. It would be a big convenience for us not having to go all the way to the Customer Service window at Downtown Crossing and other locations just to transfer value to a CharlieCard.

I have no doubt the FVMs are very capable of doing so... I had a couple of farebox-stored valued Charlie Tickets and the FVM actually had an option of transferring all the value of the farebox ticket to another CharlieTicket or to a CharlieCard. I did so, combining both farebox tickets onto one CharlieTicket. To my knowledge, it only works if the CharlieTicket was created from a farebox. Is there a reason why this option was never put in the FVM?

UPDATE: The Student CharlieCard has been discontinued. People may no longer load money into Student CharlieCards. I am not sure if they still work but I do hope that they either work or are giving refunds at the pass sales offices for the amount stored.

I have experienced this myself. I saw someone try to load money onto a Student CharlieCard on a farebox on a bus. The bus would not allow it. The operator tried it and it didn't work either. I have friends who tried loading them at a station FVM. They FVM would not allow them to load money onto the student charliecards.

What I do know is that the cards are NOT expired. The ones from the first run do not expire until 2012. The ones after that may expire even later. I think that the MBTA might make a Youth Pass as people had asked for it, or are making student charliecards that expire after one year because some people are already out of high school and are still using the student CharlieCard.

Also, I think they discontinued it because it had many flaws. The Student CharlieCard could only be tapped once like a pass. If tapped twice, the machine would not take it. In a typical scenario, person A taps it and wants to tap it for student B who either has no money or forgot their card. Since the card canot be tapped twice, person B would have to pay the full fare.

Also, during holidays, the fareboxes are NOT programmed to take full fare off. I'm sure people have been harassed by operators about it being a holiday and that they need to pay full fare. People probably complained that it was THEIR money on the card and that they should be able to use it. They feel that they shouldn't be responsible for the MBTA's lack of planning.

You can combine a Farebox CharlieTicket with another CharlieTicket (which doesn't need to be a Farebox ticket), but I didn't see any way to move value from a Farebox CharlieTicket to a CharlieCard on the FVM.

I occasionally find discarded CharlieTickets that have the word VOID overprinted on them, like the one on the right in this picture:



If you put such a ticket into an FVM, the display says it is a "Voiding Change Card" with value $0.00, and the "Add Value" button is grayed out. If you put it into a fare gate, the gate says "SEE AGENT". What causes a ticket to become a Voiding Change Card and get overprinted this way? It is not a Farebox ticket (ChangeTicket).

(I haven't seen a ticket like the one on the left in a long time, but I'm curious about it, too.)