Re: Fairmont Line Upgrade
Am I dreaming if I remember seeing handheld readers being used by the T at points on the green line to tab people in in the past? Why can't these just be given to the conductors on this line to run down and tap or quickly swipe charlie tickets, in lieu of a fare gate. Is it really that hard? I scanned my phone to board a plane yesterday!
There has never been a good explanation given as to why they aren't doing it. They've only said "Ha-ha! Fuck never!" since they reversed course on CR Charlies. From what I understand there are real-deal vexing technical hurdles in the system for getting the commuter rail on it, but that doesn't explain why they aren't even trying. A modern software system that probably is backended by some scalable Oracle database should not be that hard to reprogram. And yes, if they can do tap surfaces on all rapid transit, buses, the bike cages at stations, and nearly all other RTA's in the state there is clearly enough flexibility in it to port to other modes and use card readers. Parking is an equally baffling omission given all their pearl-clutching about people abusing the honor system. I mean, the DOT had no problems porting EZ Pass to commuter lots, including the T's own Westwood/128. What gives?
The smartphone app simply doesn't cover all needs. Not everybody has a smartphone. The most transit-reliant inner city residents are the least-likely demographic to have a data plan. It's class-biased to shove everyone onto that ticketing method and put a punitive surcharge on onboard purchases.
We should be moving towards this:
-- Charlie machines at every CR station so there's less need for staffed ticketing locations.
-- Charlie machines at every park-and-ride lot.
-- Card readers for every CR conductor, since they aren't reducing staff there with the ironclad union rule about 1 conductor per every 2 open cars.
-- Tap surfaces on the coach doors for Fairmount or other such installations (Riverside via Worcester Line?) that are on a unified "Indigo" fare. Tapping auto-opens the door. Will reduce dwell times significantly by allowing all-doors boarding instead of front-door only on the off-peak, only requires doors actively being used to open, and allows onboard staff to only monitor compliance and help customers at doors that are being triggered (have their onboard readers wirelessly indicate which doors got opened, sort of like the unused door pushbuttons on the new Blue Line cars pinging the operator's display).
-- Timed free transfers off the "Indigo" fares to Red or Silver at SS or other rapid transit lines additional routes would intersect.
-- If they can ever can reduce onboard staffing, roll out the tap surfaces to all CR. Tap at the doors to get on + tap at the doors to get off so your Zone fare is accurately auto-calculated. Security cameras at the doors and random-sample review of security tapes to track compliance. Assign extra roving conductors to fare-evading runs to condition compliance. You know, like they should be doing on the Green Line to end this asinine front door-only constriction.
-- After all this automation is introduced, shift the conductor role to more a roving onboard customer service rep vs. a rote ticket collector. For example, assign extra staff to the packed rush hour runs on certain lines where door queues are going to degrade dwell times and extra human help can speed things up...but fewer staff to the lines that aren't so packed or concentrated to boardings at certain stops (Fairmount, Greenbush, etc.). Assign roving on-platform conductors at individual stations where the door queues are particularly extreme and need a hand (e.g. the terminals, max ridership + frequency stops that have available staffing shelters like Westwood, Anderson). And have onboard staff focus on the doors on the train that are most crowded, since people instinctively clutter to the doors closest to the egresses on their stop's platform.
This is not so hard to gradually roll out. They have the backoffice capability for doing all this, it significantly improves their farebox recovery and schedule efficiency, and other CR systems are running circles around them implementing exactly this array of stuff.
