another problem with paper CharlieTickets
Aug. 20th, 2008 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adrian_turtleThere have been a bunch of news reports lately about security flaws in the MBTA's paper CharlieTickets. I've seen commentary to the effect that "everybody knows" the paper tickets are not secure. (I had no idea, but I've never pretended to be part of everybody.) When I bought my commuter rail pass for August, I resented having to carry the fragile and inconvenient paper ticket, after getting accustomed to the electronic CharlieCard I could tap without taking it out of my wallet. But conductors on the commuter rail don't have card readers, so rail passes always need to be issued as printed paper tickets.
A monthly pass for the commuter rail is supposed to be good for "unlimited travel on Local Bus, Subway, Express Bus, Inner Harbor Ferries, and Commuter Boat." When I bought the August commuter rail pass, I expected I would mostly use it for the train to Lowell. Yet on the days when I have to run around and deal with medical nonsense, I'm mostly running around taking buses and subways. Late Saturday afternoon, my CharlieCard stopped working with the readers in bus and subways. It had worked early Saturday afternoon.
This paper ticket stopped working after it had been through a reader 25-30 times, and been rained on 4 times. I paid $223 for it, and it is supposed to be valid through August 31. My CharlieCard has tapped a reader thousands of times, and been rained on hundreds of times. (It's not unusual for a round trip to involve 6 or 8 interactions with cardreaders.) Bus drivers look at the ticket, make me put it through the reader again, and then conclude there is something wrong with the reader and let me on the bus. In subway stations, I have to find somebody who works for the MBTA, which is always a challenge. Some of them let me in. Some argue that my pass is not good for the subway, because it does not have "subway" printed on it. One said I had to go to the Government Center station to get a new pass (why Government Center?) because he could not help me. So far, nobody has accused me of attempting any kind of fraud. But I am more and more inclined to take buses, where I can.
A monthly pass for the commuter rail is supposed to be good for "unlimited travel on Local Bus, Subway, Express Bus, Inner Harbor Ferries, and Commuter Boat." When I bought the August commuter rail pass, I expected I would mostly use it for the train to Lowell. Yet on the days when I have to run around and deal with medical nonsense, I'm mostly running around taking buses and subways. Late Saturday afternoon, my CharlieCard stopped working with the readers in bus and subways. It had worked early Saturday afternoon.
This paper ticket stopped working after it had been through a reader 25-30 times, and been rained on 4 times. I paid $223 for it, and it is supposed to be valid through August 31. My CharlieCard has tapped a reader thousands of times, and been rained on hundreds of times. (It's not unusual for a round trip to involve 6 or 8 interactions with cardreaders.) Bus drivers look at the ticket, make me put it through the reader again, and then conclude there is something wrong with the reader and let me on the bus. In subway stations, I have to find somebody who works for the MBTA, which is always a challenge. Some of them let me in. Some argue that my pass is not good for the subway, because it does not have "subway" printed on it. One said I had to go to the Government Center station to get a new pass (why Government Center?) because he could not help me. So far, nobody has accused me of attempting any kind of fraud. But I am more and more inclined to take buses, where I can.
