Charlie Card Store to reopen on November 3rd.

Jahvon09

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The MBTA Charlie Card Store will reopen on November the 3rd. It was closed for a while, I think because of covid-19. The store will be open with limited hours though. Check the scheduling on the T's website.


MondayClosedNo in-person transactions
Tuesday, Thursday8:30 AM – 1 PMOpen to seniors, TAP customers, riders with chronic health conditions, and legally blind riders
Wednesday, Friday12:30 PM – 5 PMOpen to the general public
For more information or questions, please contact Customer Support at 617-222-3200.

Looks nice & fresh!!


CharlieCard_Store_COVID_Opening_102720.jpg
 
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I'm just glad that it's reopening. Taking too long for the Charlie Card to come in the mail!! If it doesn't come by Tuesday, I'll go down there & try to get one. :eek:
 
I haven't gone there yet. Been too busy! I'll go Tuesday. :)
 
Asking the potentially dumb question - what exactly is the purpose of the CharlieCard store? Is it just a place where you can get a card once, like convenience stores near stations?

Also, from that photo it seems awfully overbuilt, or maybe a lot more people use it than I realize (I've clearly never been).
 
Asking the potentially dumb question - what exactly is the purpose of the CharlieCard store? Is it just a place where you can get a card once, like convenience stores near stations?

Also, from that photo it seems awfully overbuilt, or maybe a lot more people use it than I realize (I've clearly never been).
They provide a multitude of services beyond distributing blank cards (which is also done at several key stations). Although most of us will probably never or very rarely require the store's services, there is a large enough population of 'T riders, that the small percentage who needs what the store offers is still fairly large.
 
They provide a multitude of services beyond distributing blank cards (which is also done at several key stations). Although most of us will probably never or very rarely require the store's services, there is a large enough population of 'T riders, that the small percentage who needs what the store offers is still fairly large.

It's one of the few places where you can get a disability Charlie card on-demand, since they have the in-house ability to take + print photo ID right on the back of the card like hardly any other outlets have. Including sometimes the Charlie-utilizing RTA bus districts; they often have extremely limited home hours for that so often the DTX is the only place available when it's a first-time applicant who needs to get that card without a weeks-long paperwork delay. Not great for aggregate accessibility (and presumably this will have fewer hurdles with AFC 2.0), but for that population in particular the DTX store is...for the moment...an irreplaceable go-to.
 
It's one of the few places where you can get a disability Charlie card on-demand
And I believe this is also true for senior cards. My parents and mother-in-law all got their cards there. And maybe they'll never need it again, but every year a new and large crop of people become eligible for the discounted fare.
 
And I believe this is also true for senior cards. My parents and mother-in-law all got their cards there. And maybe they'll never need it again, but every year a new and large crop of people become eligible for the discounted fare.

IIRC...you can get a first-time senior/disability card for one year without photo on back if you fill out the right paperwork ahead of time, but it'll have to be renewed annually at P.I.T.A. duplicated effort until you get the photo'd version. The cards with set-it-and-forget it 4+ year re-up terms have the photo ID printed on back, and to get those you're limited to either visiting DTX in-person or getting lucky with one of the extreme-few RTA offices or other locations statewide that can print it right on the card. So...again, for the audience with most pressing accessibility needs visit to the DTX Charlie store is pretty much non-optional for netting the perma-fix somewhere in the process.

This obviously has enormous room for improvement with AFC 2.0, as there simply must be more means made available of getting the photo ID...either direct system download to the RMV or state ID photos database and/or more suburban service locations or ancillary state offices made capable of printing the special passes whole-cloth. Probably won't know until very late in the implementation game how that's going to work because it's out in the weeds as far as detail goes. But it's antithetical to the notion of universal accessibility to have that function so overly dependent on one single location not everyone can feasibly get to within limited business hours, so we have responsibility to do better with the new system.
 
I went there last year to get a very old Charie Card that I needed to exchange. One of those were it was from the older system and to get the stored value I had to go there.
 
They DO expire & you DO have to go get a new one. At least, it's that way with the senior / disability Charlie card. Not sure about the rest of them. I got caught off-guard when I tried to add money to mine. The store clerk told me that it wouldn't work. When I went downtown, that is when I found out that the old store was gone.
 
I walked by there last Friday. The line was about 10-15 people long.
 
Wow, thanks for the thorough answers everyone! Glad it exists, even though I've never needed it (although like F-Line said, it definitely sounds like it'd be better to have a bunch of smaller decentralized offices).
 
I went there last year to get a very old Charie Card that I needed to exchange. One of those were it was from the older system and to get the stored value I had to go there.
Just to note, you can also exchange an old Charlie Card for a new one by mail. While the Charlie Card Store was closed, I did that. It took about 2 weeks, and they transferred my stored value.
 
Just to note, you can also exchange an old Charlie Card for a new one by mail. While the Charlie Card Store was closed, I did that. It took about 2 weeks, and they transferred my stored value.

How old? I have some old boys that arent read by machines
 
How old? I have some old boys that arent read by machines

Pretty sure if the embedded chip itself isn't hosed that the DTX Store is capabable of fetching any stored value. Charlies issued from Day 1 legally-speaking never 'expire' outright even though faregates have a generational backwards-compatibility cutoff point for expediency's sake (e.g. not wasting too many cycles trying to read too far-decayed RFID signal pings). The Store has more powerful readers onhand for the sake of salvaging value off badly damaged cards so should be able to handle cards of any vintage.
 
Pretty sure if the embedded chip itself isn't hosed that the DTX Store is capabable of fetching any stored value. Charlies issued from Day 1 legally-speaking never 'expire' outright even though faregates have a generational backwards-compatibility cutoff point for expediency's sake (e.g. not wasting too many cycles trying to read too far-decayed RFID signal pings). The Store has more powerful readers onhand for the sake of salvaging value off badly damaged cards so should be able to handle cards of any vintage.

Ill need to visit then
 
I went down there today. After waiting in an exasperatingly long line, they told that since I ordered a Charlie Card on the phone, I'd have to wait another week for it to come in the mail. I asked them; You mean that after waiting in this long line, I still have to wait for the card to come in the mail? They gave me a temporary pass to hold me over until the card comes.

So if anyone has called & ordered a card over the phone, you'll still have to wait for it to be mailed to you. :mad:
 
No wonder the line was so damn long. There were only 3 people in there!! There were supposed to be 6!! :mad:
 
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I won't ask for it to come that way next time. I'll just go down there & get one instantly!!
Won't have to get another one for 8 years!!!! :)
 
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