Earlier this week, I got to try out the MBTA's new CharlieCard, which is currently in a testing phase for volunteers to try them out before they become more widely available at fare machines across the region.
The new cards represent a major milestone in the T's long-delayed, $935 million "fare transformation" contract, which dates to the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker. In spite of the delays and the high cost of the project, the new fare payment system does offer some potential benefits to riders and to the T in general.
Here's an overview of our testing experience so far, and what other riders can expect from the new payment system.
Buy fares anywhere
One of the biggest advantages of the new system is that it lets riders add value to their CharlieCard on the internet – you no longer have to use the T's subway vending machines.
At the new www.charlie.mbta.com website, riders will be able to create a user account and manage their various payment methods, including mobile phone payments and CharlieCards.
From there, you can use a credit or debt card to add value to your CharlieCard, or add one of the T's daily, weekly, or monthly pass products.
Another feature of the website is the "Trip History" page, which offers a ledger of your recent transit trips and fare payments (you'll see a few "declined tap" messages in this screenshot – more on that below).
You'll also be able to register your phone or an ordinary credit card as alternative fare payment options, and presumably those would be added to your same record of trips and payments.
If at first you don't succeed...
An MBTA spokesperson told StreetsblogMASS that the testing phase that's in progress now is trying to identify technical issues and improve the overall customer experience before the new system becomes more broadly available.
"On the technical side, we are able to ensure the system is operating as expected – proactively identifying and resolving major and minor technical issues," a spokesperson told StreetsblogMASS.
On the customer service side, the MBTA's team is asking test phase participants to fill our surveys and provide feedback on how well the system is working for them.
I did experience a minor but slightly irritating glitch while I was testing my new card. Every time I tried to tap into a fare gate or bus, the fare readers buzzed and gave me a big red X to indicate that may payment wasn't accepted.
But when I tried tapping a second time, it worked immediately:
I did report this issue to the T's support team, and I'm curious to learn if other testers have experienced the same problem.
Your data and Cubic
The ability to review your transit riding history is a slick feature, but it also made me curious about riders' data privacy.
This information, after all, provides a remarkably detailed look into where and when specific CharlieCard users are moving around the city, and now, that data is also linked to my credit card and email address.
An MBTA spokesperson told us that the new system has "strong user privacy protection as a core tenet of its design," with encrypted devices and adherence to industry security standards for credit card payments.
The spokesperson also referred us to the T's privacy policy, which says that the T is already collecting your travel history data to monitor ridership and travel demand, but also promises to "never sell or commercialize your personal information, including mobility information, purchase and travel history."
Massachusetts law (Chapter 161A, section 5(s)) also requires the T to keep personal data confidential.
But those laws are only as good as the governments who enforce them. And this feels like an appropriate place to report the fact that Cubic, the vendor that's setting up this new fare system for the T, is also a major military contractor that sells technology and equipment to militaries in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Israel.
Cubic also just announced this month a "strategic partnership" with Palantir, the Trump-aligned AI company that provides extensive data services to facilitate Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
The MBTA insists that our data is safe. "In addition to technical safeguards, the MBTA has extensive legally-binding contractual agreements with our fare collection technology vendors – including but not limited to Cubic – that limit vendors’ ability to access and use data from our systems," the T's spokesperson told us.
Any attempt to use rider data "would face serious legal repercussions," they said.
Still, there are still ways to protect your privacy. You could set up your CharlieCard account with an anonymous email address, for starters, then buy a prepaid debit card from your local drugstore or use another anonymous payment method to add value or buy passes.
What's next
The T doesn't have a timeline for launching the new CharlieCard to all riders, but a spokesperson told StreetsblogMASS that the older cards will continue to work so that riders will have time to spend down their stored value before they get the new version.
"We plan to share more information about the rollout in the future as details are finalized and more information becomes available," the MBTA's spokesperson said.
