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The new CharlieCard vending machines are in

New CharlieCard vending machines in Malden

John Smith watched the stately procession of new CharlieCard value-adding machines at Malden today.

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Comments

Excuse my ignorance...but what's new & different about these machines? They look exactly the same as the current ones. Please tell me it's more than 'they don't run on Windows XP' like the current ones have been shown to do.

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I think they actually dispense the cards and not tickets

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Hopefully they dispense CharlieCards directly.

Pittsburgh, which uses the same system/vendor, does. None of that "find an ambassador between 8am and 9am" crap

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Yes, the new machines will dispense CharlieCards, as well as new "tappable" CharlieTickets that have an embedded RFID chip (like CharlieCards) instead of a magnetic stripe, but are still made of paper instead of being a durable plastic card.

This is all part of what the MBTA is calling "AFC 1.5," which is essentially an effort to somewhat modernize the current fare collection system to compensate for delays to "AFC 2.0," which will be a brand-new system that is supposed to completely replace the current CharlieCard/CharlieTicket system and will also allow for things like being able to pay directly with a contactless credit/debit card or Apple Pay/Google Pay at fare gates.

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So is this like upgrading from Windows 95 OSR1 to Windows 95 OSR2.. Does it come with dialup networking 3.5 ?

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In addition to never ending ballooning costs and delays for AFC 2.0 (it was up to $1 billion and years late) now they are also spending money on a stopgap system?

This is the #1 reason why I'm in favor of making the T free. If they made the T free they'd save billions on all the crap that's needed to issue tickets, operate fare gates etc.

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fin

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I think the new ones are supposed to be able to dispense Charlie Cards. The current ones can only do Charlie Tickets if you didn't have a card already.

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I hope these new machines have updated programming, too. Transfer funds from expired cards?

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they are still caught up in some red tape. hopefully soon.

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are these the ones for children and short people?
Assuming they will be put on pedestals.
I will not put the MBshiTA on a Pedestal.

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Magoo thinks this is what happens if c3po and R2D2 had un Bebe. Beep broop zeee whiz whoooooopppeeee. Magoo.

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the marginally useful machines on buses, that people have to struggle with to get to accept bills?

(Yes, I know, "fill up the CharlieCard at a T station." That doesn't excuse the bad design of those machines.)

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AFAIK is not to accept cash on buses. The T also plans to roll out more locations to add value to a ticket or card as part of that plan. Yes, you can stop laughing now.

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The bus drivers will just love that. They already hate the current boxes (never complain to them about that :-( ) .

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The AFC 2.0 plan also calls for the ability to directly tap debit/credit cards, phones, etc, as other forms of payment. The push to eliminate cash is to speed up boarding and reduce dwell times/bunching.

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