MetroWest Regional Transit Authority (MWRTA) buses will soon accept fare payment from riders using the Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority's (MBTA) CharlieCard, just one of several new revamps to the Boston area mass transportation network.
The MBTA announced the move last month as part of several new improvements to the T system. Beyond increasing the reach of its CharlieCard system, the T has also introduced three−car trains on its Green Line, extended its Silver Line and unveiled plans to upgrade its commuter rail.
The MBTA has also bought 75 new commuter rail cars for a sum of $190 million, according to MBTA spokesperson Lydia Rivera. The double−decker cars, purchased in 2008, are now set to be phased in beginning next month until December 2012.
The MBTA last month introduced the Silver Line Direct Connect, a new branch of the Silver Line that runs between Dudley Square Station and South Station.
In addition, the MBTA also last month began testing expanded trains on some routes, introducing three−car trains on selected branches of the Green Line, rather than the customary two.
Rivera said the MBTA plans for buses from 10 other regional transportation authorities (RTAs) in the Greater Boston area to eventually accept CharlieCards as well.
"This is the pilot; this is the first one. What we want to do, and we will do, is expand to the additional RTAs," Rivera told the Daily.
MetroWest buses previously accepted fare payment in cash or paper 10−ride tickets, according to MWRTA Administrator Ed Carr.
Rivera said passengers riding MetroWest buses to the Green Line now use their CharlieCards to pay for all the fares in their commute.
"Say someone gets on at Framingham, pays, and then they get off at the Woodland Station on the Green Line, then they have to get a CharlieCard to board that train," Rivera said. "What we're going to be doing is providing a seamless connection from the MWRTA to the Green Line."
John von Goeler, a representative for Scheidt & Bachmann, the company that developed the automated fare collection system used with the CharlieCard, said a single method of payment for trains and buses simplifies travel.
"For the rider it's an easy process to jump back and forth," he told the Daily. "Now you can just use the one card and it's all automatically calculated and deducted."
Carr said the MWRTA's transition to accepting CharlieCards, initiated in October, would be complete by the end of December.
Scheidt & Bachmann is now finalizing contracts with the ten other RTAs in the greater Boston area, von Goeler said.
"We're expecting them to implement most of those [contracts] by the first half of 2011," Goeler said. "Most of these agencies should have fare systems up and running that should be compatible with the CharlieCard."
Carr said that the MWRTA has planned to integrate its payment system with the MBTA's since the MWRTA was established in 2007. MWRTA equipped its buses with the same fare boxes that the MBTA uses for the CharlieCard.
"When we started the RTA we wanted to be interoperable with the MBTA. Because it was new we had the ability to plan for this interoperability," Carr told the Daily in an e−mail.
The CharlieCard expansion is part of a series of reforms outlined in a 2009 transportation reform bill, signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick, which eliminated the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and consolidated numerous agencies into the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT).
Integrating commuter rail into the CharlieCard system is part of the governor's larger goal of streamlining transportation, according to MassDOT spokesperson Klark Jessen.
"The Patrick administration and MassDOT have the goal of moving towards a more seamless system for the customer who may one day need to take a bus and then the subway and the next day the commuter rail," Jessen told the Daily. "The goal would be to eventually add the commuter rail."
But Rivera said that actual implementation is still a long way off. The MBTA must update the commuter rail's technology to make it compatible with the CharlieCard system, she said.
"That is a future endeavor that we're underway with. That's not anytime soon," she said.
Von Goeler said that future innovations to simplify fare payment remain possible.
"We talk with a lot of transit authorities that would like to implement a system where any card in your wallet you could use potentially as a device for paying your fare," he said.
