MBTA fare machines reject credit card during 2-hour glitch
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff
MBTA riders trying to add value to their Charlie Cards with credit or debit cards this morning faced problems for nearly two hours, T officials said.
Between 7:40 and 9:24 a.m., the machines "started experiencing intermittent disruptions of service" that typically lasted between five and seven minutes, spokesman Joe Pesaturo said. T officials were meeting at noon today to discuss what went wrong and why and how to keep it from happening again.
Pesaturo said there was no way of estimating how many riders were unable to complete transactions. Charlie Card machines that take cash weren't affected, he said.
The T spent $192 million two years ago to introduce Charlie Cards, stored value cards that replaced cash and tokens for passengers to pay their fare on the four subway lines, streetcars, and bus lines.
