MBTA Fare System (Charlie, AFC 2.0, Zone, Discounts)

RandomWalk said:
Having just returned from a trip to NYC, I want the T to scrap AFC 2.0 and copy OMNY. Tapping Apple Pay to charge a fare and having it transparently handle free transfers and upgrading to a weekly unlimited was a dream compared to the T.
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can someone explain why we can’t just buy OMNY for the T and why we need a $1 billion custom system? Are fare systems shared similar to how rolling stock are sometimes ordered by multiple agency’s?
 
OMNY just licenses technology from TfL. Cubic runs OMNY, so it should be doable. However, there has been all the back and forth about fare schemes and blind alleys about whether fares are even necessary.
 
as02143 said:
AFC 2 ≈ OMNY. Same technology and basically same desired outcome. Even have basically the same project management companies involved.
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Am I misremembering, or is part of the problem with AFC 2.0's snail-pace rollout Cubic having its hands full with OMNY?
 
Brattle Loop said:
Am I misremembering, or is part of the problem with AFC 2.0's snail-pace rollout Cubic having its hands full with OMNY?
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That’s what I was under the impression of as well. This article suggests their hands are tied with more than just OMNY and spread themselves too thin with the current supply chain issues.
 
I think we may be talking at cross purposes. I also meant they should dump the current fare scheme for the OMNY-style “tap 12 times in a week, and the rest of the week is free”. The last presentation I saw deferred all that to “future possibilities”.
 
Just looked at this thread for the first time in ages, and it makes me grumpy. I had some $25 pre-Covid on a first-gen card that expired during pandemic. I walked out to Packard’s Corner in May of 2022 for an early meeting. After, it was sunny and hot, so I tried to get on the B Line but the driver said my card was expired. (He was nice enough to still let me ride back into town, gratis.)

Of course, there was no one at Copley who had a “new” card, much less any info on how to transfer my balance if I could find a “new” card. They told me to go to DTX. Which, ended my reliance on the T to get around the few times a year I can’t/won’t walk or drive myself. Screw it, I’ll simply take a cab and submit for reimbursement to my Office of Accounting. I don’t have the time to waste going to the piss-smelling hell that is the DTX concourse. The T is its own worst enemy.
 
bbfen said:
Of course, there was no one at Copley who had a “new” card, much less any info on how to transfer my balance if I could find a “new” card. They told me to go to DTX. Which, ended my reliance on the T to get around the few times a year I can’t/won’t walk or drive myself. Screw it, I’ll simply take a cab and submit for reimbursement to my Office of Accounting. I don’t have the time to waste going to the piss-smelling hell that is the DTX concourse. The T is its own worst enemy.
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I've never understood why the cards expire like that, and why apparently the only place than can help is the CharlieCard store at DTX. I feel like that might be more to do with technical issues with the original AFC system than an MBTA decision, but I don't know, and it's extremely stupid either way.
 
Brattle Loop said:
I've never understood why the cards expire like that, and why apparently the only place than can help is the CharlieCard store at DTX. I feel like that might be more to do with technical issues with the original AFC system than an MBTA decision, but I don't know, and it's extremely stupid either way.
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It's not like they can help you there either. I've been there multiple times and just got dead-eyed blank stares in response to my problems.

You can get a new card online, or just buy new one at a store and forget about balance transfer. The CharlieCard store is worse than useless.

The Link pass system has been updated in the past couple of months and it seems like the online account management system doesn't completely suck.
 
RandomWalk said:
I think we may be talking at cross purposes. I also meant they should dump the current fare scheme for the OMNY-style “tap 12 times in a week, and the rest of the week is free”. The last presentation I saw deferred all that to “future possibilities”.
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That is the plan, as well as, supporting contactless mobile payment.

sounded like they wanted to implement fare capping fairly quickly, but, that was 2 pandemics and governor ago. Who knows if the current governor wants to use their authorization to do that or jump directly to New York style fare capping.
 
New fare readers have been installed at Wellington:
Screenshot_20230507_182959_Facebook.jpg
 
Local news channels had a field day explaining that "the newly installed fare equipment doesn't work" with very little additional context to the general public...
 
palindrome said:
can someone explain why we can’t just buy OMNY for the T and why we need a $1 billion custom system? Are fare systems shared similar to how rolling stock are sometimes ordered by multiple agency’s?
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Cubic also built/operated the original Metrocard system for the NYC MTA. Which likely makes it a much simpler project - they're upgrading their own system, vs having to upgrade/transition from another vendor's system (which is what's happening at the MBTA).
 
I consider the interim payment scheme to be real waste of money here. They're trying to phase in the new system while keeping the old one active. They should just deactivate all fare collection for a couple months while the new system is installed. I imagine they don't want to "lose" operating "income" because capital funds have been made available.
 
Another $51 million to Scheidt & Bachman to ensure the current AFC is compliant with PCI 4.0 starting in March 2025. Cubic has spent $300 million on AFC 2.0, but it’s “delayed” past that deadline.
 
RandomWalk said:
Another $51 million to Scheidt & Bachman to ensure the current AFC is compliant with PCI 4.0 starting in March 2025. Cubic has spent $300 million on AFC 2.0, but it’s “delayed” past that deadline.
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Ugh, PCI compliance, last I had to deal with that was the new 3.0 version. Bright side: After they gain PCI 4.0 compliance, I am sure some MIT students will provide detailed pen-testing results of actual real-world security public pretty quickly :)
 
sm89 said:
I consider the interim payment scheme to be real waste of money here. They're trying to phase in the new system while keeping the old one active. They should just deactivate all fare collection for a couple months while the new system is installed. I imagine they don't want to "lose" operating "income" because capital funds have been made available.
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I agree. This whole process of a transition system with both active seems to be a HUGE waste of money. Is fare evasion that widespread to be losing the millions of dollars spent on this system?
 
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