T is rolling ahead with fare cards

MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas announced an aggressive plan yesterday to convert the T to an automated, prepaid fare system, pledging that nearly the entire transit network would switch to CharlieTickets, its new automated fare system, by the end of next year.

While the T has previously made it clear that the new system is coming, yesterday was the first time the agency has detailed the installation schedule. The fare cards, which eventually will replace the T token, are now in use at a handful of Blue Line and Silver Line stations.

While the agency does not predict precisely when the fare system will be read on various lines, Grabauskas expects the entire Orange Line to be done by next summer, and the bulk of the other work to be done by the end of the year. The $200 million installation project is complicated by a number of factors including renovation of some stations.

In addition, starting next month, the monthly passes for MBTA riders will become CharlieTickets, exposing riders to the new system and allowing them to renew their passes at a growing number of automated kiosks. There are 188,000 people who buy monthly passes, the T says.

T officials tout the benefits of the CharlieTicket. They say it will speed service, make the system more accessible, and give riders the ability to transfer from bus to subway without buying another ticket.

The automated kiosks will allow passengers to feed money -- using cash, credit, or debit card -- into the machine and choose the amount they want to put on their fare card, a laminated paper card about the size of a driver's license. The card can be used systemwide with the fare deducted from the card's value at each point of use.

The T is under pressure to generate revenue and increase ridership, and T officials say the new system will allow them to more carefully track ridership and revenue while cracking down on passengers evading fares.

In an interview yesterday, Grabauskas said: ''2006 is the year of Charlie. This system will transform how riders use the T."

With the systemwide conversion of all MBTA monthly passes to CharlieTickets next month, T officials are hoping that riders will become more comfortable with the technology.

By the end of next year, the number of automated kiosks where patrons can buy monthly, weekly, or visitor passes will expand from about nine to 78. With that, T officials hope to increase the number of riders buying monthly passes from the current 55 percent to between 70 and 80 percent, which is more in line with some larger transit systems that long ago switched to automated fare collection, such as New York and Washington, D.C.

CharlieTickets are named after the Charlie character from the song ''Charlie of the MTA," about a man forced to ride the Boston-area transit system forever because he did not have the required nickel exit fare. Eventually, the T will widely introduce more permanent ''CharlieCards," which are sturdier purchase cards that can be linked to a bank account as Fast Lane electronic toll transponders are.

The automated fare collection system has been partially installed on the Blue Line and Silver Line with minor glitches and confusion over the past year. Problems have included fare gates breaking or not moving fast enough, children's strollers triggering malfunctions at the gates, rider frustration over having to convert tokens into tickets at CharlieTicket kiosks, and slowdowns on acceptance of coins in the new fare boxes on the Silver Line.

The T has addressed the troubles, Grabauskas said. After riders complained that dollar bill feeders had rejected currency, the T replaced them. Now, the time it takes passengers to pay their fare on T Silver Line buses has been cut from 11 seconds to 4 seconds, still long but better than it was, Grabauskas said.

Saul Rothstein, 60, of Holliston, who spends weekends around Rowe's Wharf where he has a condo and frequently uses the new system at the Blue Line's Aquarium station, said the debut of the new system created chaos.

''You kind of needed a user's manual to use it," he said. ''A lot of people had a lot of trouble getting a ticket.

Now, he said, after several months, ''it seems like it's going more quickly."

Told of the rollout of the system next year, Rothstein said: ''That I look forward to, especially if it can be used at every turnstile and every fare box."

Despite the glitches, which were expected, Grabauskas said revenue is up and fare evasion down wherever the equipment has been installed. The $887,408 in fare revenue collected on the Blue Line in October was 35 percent more than the revenue collected in October the previous year, an indication to T officials that the new collection system is thwarting those who don't pay their fares.

The T estimates that fare evaders cost the agency $2.5 million annually systemwide.

In addition, riders seem to be getting used to the system.

In October, for example, 5,800 weekly combination passes and 1,100 monthly passes were sold at Blue Line stations, the first time they were made available there.

More important for the T, about 35 percent of all sales have been through credit or debit cards at Blue Line station fitted with the new equipment.

The agency wants the system to eventually be driven by mostly cashless transactions, bringing speed and efficiency to the transit network.

Mac Daniel can be reached at mdaniel@globe.com.