The Boston Traveler

On Tuesday, December 4, the latest fare collection method of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (better known as simply the MBTA) turned one year old. Bay State residents call the electronic “smart card” that supplanted the former T-pass and token system the CharlieCard, or just plain Charlie for short.

Charlie’s a handy little hard-plastic guy, very much like a credit card in appearance, that allows you to do all sorts of wonderful things, such as ride public transportation for less money with the significant fare discount allotted to purchasers.

There’s also a paper-based, swipeable CharlieTicket, which is dispensed at vending machines and carries a higher per-ride cost. Commuters use the same vending machines to refresh the stored value on both the plastic and paper versions of Charlie.

Due to the rigid material, however, plastic CharlieCards aren’t available at vending machines; you get them free of charge at participating locations and then load them with your preferred cash value or riding options. Commuters can even use cash to ride the bus instead … and pay the highest fare of all. So, if you plan to visit Boston and take advantage of public transportation, also plan to pick up either a CharlieCard or CharlieTicket to save money.

I bought my first CharlieCard when it came out last December because I’m a true public transportation fanatic. Like many urban dwellers, I don’t drive, would never consider buying a car and paying for all that gas and parking, and feel that if you can’t get somewhere by bus and/or train, then somewhere’s not worth getting to in the first place.

Charlie’s biggest contributions to Massachusetts commuters has been the greater ease of tapping as opposed to swiping (some riders don’t even bother taking the darn thing out of their wallets), as well as greater flexibility refreshing the card. In the last case, the CharlieCard vending machines located at many train stations accept credit and debit card payments in addition to cash and offer a larger variety of transportation alternatives. Several types of outlets, such as supermarkets and check cashing stores, sale Charlie, too, extending the range of places to keep him current.

You can learn more about the MBTA and the Charlie fare system at the MBTA website and the Charlie website, respectively. Both are exceedingly useful, informative, and well designed—so much so that the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences awarded the MBTA a 2007 Webby Award for Best Government Website just four months after the main site launched.

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