(The following article by Mac Daniel was posted on the Boston Globe website on August 9.)
BOSTON — With the installation of the MBTA’s new fare-collection system halfway complete, the T will ask its board of directors tomorrow to purchase an additional $5.7 million in spare parts from the main contractor, Scheidt & Bachmann of Germany.
The request for money arrives as the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority proposes a fare increase and as passenger complaints grow about the collection system, which they say is leaving riders stranded or paying double when their CharlieTickets don’t work where the new equipment is not installed.
Of the 68 MBTA stations, 34 1/2 have been converted to the new system, which T officials predict will thwart fare evasion and allow the agency to better control and review ridership trends.
The system is expected to be installed in all subway stations by the end of the year, with automated fare collection set to debut at Wellington on the Green Line on Aug. 15, Park Street east on Aug. 18, Back Bay on Aug. 24, and Harvard’s main station on Oct. 24.
T officials said rider frustration is part of the system’s growing pains. They said they have tried to post accurate signs at all stations letting riders know which stations are converted and which are not, though many are missing or out of date.
Joe Kelley, MBTA deputy general manager for systemwide modernization, said maps were being used to show which stations had the system, but “we were confusing everybody” because the maps became out of date as new stations went online.
“Do we wish we could have converted the entire system overnight? Of course, we do,” said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. “But that wasn’t possible.”
While some new MBTA monthly passes can be used in the old turnstiles, the CharlieTickets issued by the new vending machines cannot.
“I’m still mad about it,” said Kristen Bendery, 38, of Jamaica Plain, who bought a CharlieTicket at Stony Brook only to find it couldn’t be used on her trip home from Back Bay on the Orange Line. “I paid for my fare. I had it in my hand. I kept saying `This is the T. I’m playing your game here. I got my ticket, and then you change the rules when I was halfway there, and that’s not cool.’ ”
She found enough change in her purse for a ride home.
“It would have been an awfully long walk home,” she said.
If the board approves the request tomorrow, the T will have spent $89 million of the $92 million budgeted to buy equipment for the new system, which has riders charge reusable tickets with stored value for their fares.
The $5.7 million in spare parts for the new system was a compromise after Scheidt & Bachmann had requested nearly $13 million.