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MBTA announces smartphone ticketing for commuter rail

By adamg on Sat, 04/21/2012 - 8:25am

The MBTA announced today that by this fall, riders should be able to use their smartphones as replacements for their current paper passes.

The T's signed a contract with a British e-ticketing company for a system that will let iPhone, Android and Blackberry users hold up their phones to conductors rather than passes.

The new system means the end of the promise to let riders use CharlieCards on commuter rail. However, riders will be able to link CharlieCards to their smartphone accounts, eliminating the need for paper tickets at connecting subway or bus lines.

The new solution will help the MBTA reduce costs by eliminating the need for additional vending machines and lowering cash handling costs. To help combat fare evasion, all mobile tickets will have barcodes allowing for validation. Throughout the pilot program, smart phone-equipped train conductors will be checking tickets to ensure their validity. Masabi will provide a comprehensive mTicketing solution including; consumer-facing applications, backend servers, payment integration and scanning/validation software for train conductors.

The T plans focus groups and a small pilot project by this summer to help fine tune the system, with full availability scheduled for this fall.

Topics: 
The T
Free tagging: 
Commuter rail


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Comments

By riggssm on Sat, 04/21/2012 - 9:33am.

This is a ridiculous waste of scarce resources. I can't believe the T got suckered into this. Well, I can, but still ...

First, a recent Federal Reserve survey shows many consumers don't yet feel comfortable with mobile banking and payment technology. Unless there's an added layer of consumer protection (money transferred via PayPal, a bank of debits purchased other way, etc.), how will this work in practice?

Second, mobile Charlie scanners already exist. Instead of consolidating existing payment methods onto a single system, the T is starting a new thing? One that, operationally, sounds dubious, at best? ("Oh, I swear Mr. Conductor, Sir, I purchased a ride but my phone battery just died. Can you believe it?")

The T is effectively abandoning fare collection on the commuter rail for 2-3 years as they roll it out, try to force riders to use it--but have concessions for every conceivable excuse--before they give up and go back to paper tickets.

EDIT TO ADD: Link to the Fed report: http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/mobile-d...

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By Saul on Sat, 04/21/2012 - 9:55am.

I agree. It's clear that integrating the CharlieCard onto the commuter rail was never a priority, and this is the official recognition of that reality. As riggssm said, there have been handheld Charlie readers from day one of the Charlie rollout. And there will be integration anyway with the CharlieCard to allegedly allow for transfers (both ways, commuter rail-to-bus/subway and vice versa?). The Globe article says --

The mobile application will cost the MBTA little to deploy - printing for an in-house marketing campaign, mostly - while providing app developer Masabi a 2.8 percent cut of tickets and passes sold by app. That contrasts with expanding the CharlieCard to commuter rail, at an estimated cost of up to $70 million.

So the Charlie integration has a large upfront cost, whereas the Masabi integration has an ongoing cost, which after some time period will exceed the Charlie integration cost.

The article also says --

As with traditional tickets and passes, conductors will note that a person has already paid by affixing small seat-check slips.

Why not abandon all conductor fare collection on the commuter rail, and have fare machines at all stations, with true random fare enforcement, with fines that have teeth?

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By anon on Sat, 04/21/2012 - 1:07pm.

Why not abandon all conductor fare collection on the commuter rail, and have fare machines at all stations, with true random fare enforcement, with fines that have teeth?

The entire issue from the start is the T not wanting to invest in installing vending machines through out the Commuter Rail System. The cost would be too much. If you did this, you still cannot abandon having Conductors because there are not enough high level platforms. The T could not afford to make all the station high levels. So you still need someone to open close the doors.

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By Dani B. on Sun, 04/22/2012 - 1:58am.

What a terrible idea. What keeps someone from easily using a screen capture of the app with the pass open?

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By Invasive Pat-Down on Mon, 04/23/2012 - 11:02am.

Because once the code has been used it can't be used again. I take it you haven't been to a Red Sox game or a concert in a long time.

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By anon on Mon, 04/23/2012 - 11:49am.

Therefore I refuse to pay for a smart phone.

And the MBTA screws up yet again.

So much for promoting ridership! Total in-f&$king-competence that I cannot use a loaded charliecard on a commuter rail train.

My hatred for this system has only grown over a 20+ year 'career' as a rider.

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