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CharlieCards

By adamg - 1/22/07 - 11:38 pm

Tape watches as some guy follows the add-value instructions on the CharlieCard machine - by tapping his card repeatedly against the screen, displaying a picture of a card - instead of against the actual sensor a couple feed to the right of the screen.

By adamg - 1/19/07 - 11:38 pm

So much going on on our humble public-transit system these days. Here's a round-up of the latest:

File this under: Can't let the terrorists know how many stars are on our flag: When JS pulls out a Polaroid (Yes, a Polaroid) to take a photo of an American flag under glass at the Airport stop on the Blue Line, a T employee immediately orders her to cease and desist:

By adamg - 1/19/07 - 9:00 am

Colleen the Subway Knitter is holding a drawing for her pair of CharlieCard mittens. Just make a donation to Rosie's Place via the PayPal link on her home page by noon on Jan. 26 and you'll be entered.

By adamg - 1/18/07 - 7:49 am

Mac Daniel reports in the Globe:

The cash-strapped MBTA lost more than an hour of fares on numerous bus routes yesterday morning when dozens of new automated-fare boxes failed on their first true Boston winter day. ...

By Ron Newman - 1/17/07 - 3:43 pm

This is brilliant. How long before someone starts producing them commercially?

By adamg - 1/17/07 - 2:34 pm

Charlie on the MBTA swears he isn't making up the problems he's having. He also posts e-mail from a rider of the 101 bus:

... This morning I boarded the bus for my commute. I am one of those commuters who still pays cash for my rides using a dollar bill and a couple quarters. The driver waved me on without paying and told me the fare box was frozen due to the cold weather. It was obvious the whole device was incapacitated and not powered on. ...

By adamg - 1/14/07 - 4:48 pm

At the bottom of Mac Daniel's latest paean to the CharlieCard (but just before he acknowledges there might be one tiny small problem with them), he writes:

We also checked out reports that folks were throwing away CharlieTickets that still had value on them. We're not saying it's not true, but after donning latex-free rubber gloves, we rummaged in the trash and found 20 CharlieTickets. After running each one through the machine and checking their values, not one cent was found.

By adamg - 1/11/07 - 11:37 pm

Dave Copeland has a CharlieTicket with $1.50 left on it:

... Is there a way to use that $1.50, or does the T permanently "hold" it for me? I'm almost certain I can't add 50 cents to the card to get it to an even $2 to cover a ride. Or can I? It's not really a big deal to me, but when you think of the thousands of riders like me stuck in Charlie Ticket limbo, that adds up to a nice chunk of change to say, plug a budget hole. ...

By adamg - 1/7/07 - 2:09 pm

T officials report no complaints whatsoever about CharlieCards failing after just four days, so therefore, it hasn't happened. Plus, anybody who's had problems with a CharlieCard, well, let's just say your trolley doesn't go to the last stop.

By adamg - 1/6/07 - 5:05 pm

Charlie on the MBTA reports on a fun interlude today on bus 2137 on the 66 route involving some poor woman who'd been told she could recharge her CharlieCard on the bus:

... The driver flat out refused to let her do it saying "Not on my bus lady, I can't be bothered." This was not a rush hour situation as there were perhaps 8 people on the bus and no one was waiting to board. ...

By adamg - 1/5/07 - 7:49 pm

Spatch breaks the news about a new MBTA system dubbed CharlieDiscs:

... In an innovative twist on the traditional pass system, each metallic CharlieDisc, roughly three-quarters of an inch in diameter, represents the fare equivalent of one subway ride. Customers will be able to purchase these discs individually or in groups from machines placed in each MBTA station and then exchange that disc for access to the train platforms. To add value, customers simply purchase more discs. ...

By adamg - 1/5/07 - 10:20 am

Plumtreeblossom reports:

... The readers on every gate said "Not Enough Value" though I paid $59 for this damn thing two days ago. It worked until this morning.

By adamg - 1/4/07 - 7:42 pm

Charlie on the MBTA writes that after just four days of use, his CharlieCard died:

... Neither the faregates at Harvard Square or the vending machines could read the chip. The (customer service agents) tried to solve the problem but alas I was told to go to the new CharlieCard Service Center located in the concourse at Downtown Crossing (located on the Red, Orange and Silver Lines) When I got there I wasn't alone and it took about 25 minutes to see a clerk. ...

By adamg - 1/4/07 - 4:09 pm

Put one in your back pocket and you can open a Charlie gate with your butt.

By adamg - 1/2/07 - 11:56 am

Feel free to post yours!

Gary McGath reports from Cambridge: Porter Square was a disaster, but Harvard Square seemed OK.

By adamg - 12/28/06 - 9:14 pm

Single Girl in the City reports:

I just got an email from our HR department stating that our T-passes for the month of January haven't been delivered. Apparently, this is a "statewide" issue, which I take to mean all state offices are lacking their T-passes for January... we were informed that "there's a chance" the passes will be delivered tomorrow. ...

By adamg - 12/22/06 - 1:18 pm

Santa was down at Fields Corner this morning handing out CharlieCards with money on them to celebrate the re-opening of the station there:

... Mine had $10, others got $2.50 or $5, and some probably had even more stored value. I also heard that a few of the gift CharlieCards had a LinkPass on them. ...

By adamg - 12/17/06 - 10:00 am

Jesse Legg says 90% of his rides on the Red and Orange Lines are good - he wonders why the T has no friends:

... Yeah, I did have a hard time getting my hands on a Charlie Card. Staff weren't there when I thought they should have been. Yeah, the new system is very questionable. Yeah, Copley Square station really smells. But public transit is a tremendous value to the region. It works better than many other quasi-public institutions. And it's a convenience, bordering on luxury, that doesn't exist in a majority of American cities.

By adamg - 12/13/06 - 2:11 pm

TC says Charlie can kiss my ass, because all but two of the turnstiles at Malden Center were set to accept only CharlieCards today:

...Smart cards have only been distributed for the past week or so, and aren't going to hit major active use until January when they replace T Passes. So how is it that somebody thought there'd be such a dramatic increase in usage of them that it was necessary to devote the majority of the turnstiles to "smart cards only"? At rush hour! ...

By adamg - 12/10/06 - 10:28 pm

A BadTransit correspondent gets to watch as an entire row of Charlie machines reboots at Porter Square - right into Windows XP.

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