The T is e-mailing companies with large numbers of employees who have commuter-rail zone passes today. One of those workers forwards this copy of the e-mail:
Dear MBTA Commuter Rail Zone Pass or Charlie Ticket Holder,
There is a problem with the encoding of some September monthly passes on Commuter Rail and CharlieTickets. This does not affect the CharlieCard/Link pass for the bus and subway.
What happened and to how many tickets?
The Attleboro Sun-Chronicle reports the house was searched yesterday as part of the investigation into unauthorized CharlieTickets.
The Globe details a network of distributors involved in a couple's alleged scheme to print and sell unauthorized CharlieTickets.
Joe Pesaturo at the MBTA passes along a letter to the T from Daniel Verinder of Jamaica Plain:
Boblothrope reports trying to convert some CharlieTickets into CharlieCards only to be told he couldn't because they were already marked as discounted or something (he got them as not-on-time reimbursements). But he discovered a quick workaround involving adding all of five cents to the tickets, then trading in the new ones you get:
... Maybe if I really want to waste the T's money I'll put each 5 cent transaction on a credit card. ...
Thanks to delays in bring the miracle that is the CharlieCard to the boonies, Jemima Pereira is forced to use a FrankenCharlieTicket, which causes her grief like you CharlieCard users couldn't imagine, from her fingers getting sucked into the slot (which hurts) to the general disdain of half the T's bus and trolley drivers. And now her ticket won't even work at Government Center because of a software glitch:
Todd reports he puts his monthly pass in the card reader and a guy rushes by him and crashes through. And then he's forced to do the same basic thing because the T's computers require a 20-minute wait between pass use.
Meanwhile, Lis Riba wonders if T honcho Grabauskas might have a closer touch with T reality if he actually took the T.
For those of you following the saga of my discarded CharlieTicket project:
Yesterday, I brought 50 CharlieTickets worth $67.85 to the Charlie office in Downtown Crossing station. In return, I got a CharlieCard with all of that value on it -- but it took 45 minutes for them to do it. I then added 15 cents to it so that it has an even number of subway rides (40).
Tomorrow morning, I'll donate this card to the Somerville Homeless Coalition. They have assured me that they will find a client who can use the card.
A couple weeks ago, the Globe's Mac Daniel all but called Ron Newman a liar for saying there was gold in them thar tossed-aside CharlieTickets.
HAH! We said then DON'T DOUBT THE NEWMAN. Official proof comes in today's Metro (the CharlieTicket of local newspapers: you find them lying around all over the place): As of late last week, the Somerville resident had 30 tickets worth $55.
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.
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. ...
A BadTransit correspondent gets to watch as an entire row of Charlie machines reboots at Porter Square - right into Windows XP.
Or stun guns for riders, Mike writes - in a description of what happened after he slid a $5 bill under the window at the UMass/JFK token booth and asked for two tokens:
"Waddya want?" he snapped at me.
I said: "Two. I wanna go and come back."
"Just tell me what you need!" the guy snarled.
"Two please," I repeated, flatly. ...
He was spoiling for a fight, and was grumping and griping beneath his breath.
I talked over him, but matter-of-factly: Two. Two. Two. ...
The MBTA thinks CharlieTickets will help increase revenue and so is rushing to get them into use.
Evan plays with a CharlieTicket at the Blue Line Airport station and doesn't like it one bit:
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