Even unlimited T passes have limits
MBTA employees accused Gregory of Cambridge of shirking his fare last week and threatened him with arrest, all because he did not wait 20 minutes.
After entering the Red Line at South Station with his monthly CharlieTicket, Gregory said he realized he left his cellphone in his office, which was nearby.
Up the stairs, out the gates, up to his office, and back to South Station went Gregory, only to find that the new fare gates would not accept his unlimited monthly pass when he returned.
''The electronic display indicated that my pass had already been used," he wrote. ''I attempted to enter through several gates with the same result."
He asked two customer service agents about the problem, and they said he would have to wait 20 minutes before the system would recognize his monthly pass again. Another agent suggested he buy a different ticket. Gregory said he had a monthly pass. He said the T employees insisted that he buy another ticket.
''Unable to believe what I was hearing, I proceeded through the gate at my next opportunity," he wrote.
One of the customer service agents ''bounded" after him, he wrote, yelling that Gregory had evaded his fare and threatening to have him arrested. Eventually, the agent gave up.
''Please tell me it is not the policy of the MBTA that anyone who enters the T and must, for whatever reason, exit and return again should have to wait 20 minutes before being allowed back through the gate."
Sorry. That is the policy of the T, and here's why, according to Maureen Shirkus, chief of Red Line operations, who responded to Gregory.
Under the new automated collection system, the MBTA uses ''passback control" to limit the number of times weekly and monthly passes can be used in a designated time period.
''When customers reuse [transfer] passes to other persons, it hurts all of our customers by impacting our ability to collect proper fares," she wrote. ''The new fare collection equipment allows us to better enforce our existing policies. The system is programmed to allow customers to 'passback' on Sundays."
Although the T backed the policy, Shirkus said the behavior of the T employees was ''disturbing and completely unacceptable," and said the MBTA was conducting ''a thorough investigation."
Maggie had taken the family into Boston to see the Marathon, riding the Red Line from Quincy Adams. She showed her monthly pass and gave the children $1.20 each, since Quincy Adams is a double-fare station. Children 5 to 11 years old ride for 60 cents.
Coming home, the trio got on at Arlington, with Maggie paying 60 cents each for the children. Once back at Quincy Adams, she needed to buy each of them another 60-cent ticket to exit. She tried the CharlieTicket vending machines, and neither would allow her to place less than $1.25 -- the adult fare -- on a single ticket.
MBTA employees who tried to help were stymied as well. ''Finally after almost 15 minutes of trying to leave the station, they told me to keep the $1.20 for the inconvenience and let us exit," she wrote.
She tried again to purchase a child's fare later that week, and found the same glitch. Customer service agents told Maggie they had been telling their supervisors about this problem for weeks, and they had decided there would be no half-price exit fares from these stations.
''I thought fare increases had to be approved by a higher authority to be legal," she wrote.
We got this response from the T: ''A software fix aimed at addressing this issue will be implemented in the next few weeks," wrote MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo.
If Maggie already had a CharlieTicket for the children, here's what she should have done to leave an exit fare station: Insert the CharlieTicket into the vending machine, press the ''Add Value" button, then the ''Other Amount" button. Then ''re-charge" the ticket with the required 60-cent exit fare. Customer service agents at Braintree and Quincy Adams have been given blank child CharlieTickets to give to customers with children who are eligible for the half-fare trip.
T officials also said that even if Maggie had placed $1.25 on the CharlieTicket for her children, the exit gates would have charged her 60 cents for the child ticket. She then could have used the remaining funds the next time she rode the T.
The Haymarket onramp to I-93 south and the Callahan Tunnel will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Wednesday.
Exit 20B (Pike west/Albany St.) off I-93 south will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Wednesday.
Two lanes of I-93 south approaching and through downtown will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Saturday.
The Essex St. onramp to I-93 south will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
The Storrow Drive onramp to I-93 south will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.
The exit ramp from I-93 south to Gov't Center and the Callahan Tunnel (exits 24A & B) will close 10 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday.
The Herald St. onramp to I-93 south will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Wednesday.
Two lanes of I-93 north through downtown will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Wednesday.
I-93 north will be closed at Exit 16 (Southampton St./Andrew Sq.) 11:30 p.m. today to 5 a.m. tomorrow.
The Sumner Tunnel onramp to I-93 north will close 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Saturday.
The Haymarket onramp to I-93 north will close 9 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, and 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Wednesday.
Three lanes of I-93 north will close approaching and through downtown 11:30 p.m. Wednesday to 5 a.m. Thursday.
The Atlantic Avenue onramp to I-93 north will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
The Essex St. onramp to I-93 north will close 11 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. tomorrow through Friday, and 11 p.m. Friday to 6:30 a.m. Saturday.
I-93 north around the Charles River will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.
The ramp at I-93 north's Exit 20 to the Pike east will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. Access to Kneeland St./South Station will remain open.
One lane of the Pike east between I-93 and the Ted Williams Tunnel will close 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow through Wednesday, and 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Saturday.
The ramp at the Pike east's Exit 24 (I-93/South Station) will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Access from Frontage Road and Albany St. to the Pike east and Logan Airport will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.
The Albany St. onramp to the Pike west will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Wednesday.
One lane of the Pike west in the Ted Williams Tunnel will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. today through Tuesday.
The onramp from Congress St. to I-93 in South Boston, and Exit 24 (I-93) off the Pike west will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Saturday.
One lane of the Pike west between the Ted Williams Tunnel and I-93 will close 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. tomorrow through Friday, and 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Saturday.
The Pike west near Logan Airport will close 11:30 p.m. Wednesday to 5 a.m. Thursday.
The westbound tunnel under the Leverett Circle from the Leverett Connector will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Thursday. Access to Nashua Street/Leverett Circle will remain open.
The Congress St. onramp to I-93 south and the Pike west will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Wednesday.
The Sumner Tunnel onramp to Gov't Center and Haymarket will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Saturday.
The Frontage Road Northbound onramp to the Pike west at the Broadway Bridge will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
The underpass from Storrow Dr. east to I-93 north and the Tobin Bridge will close 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday.
The Broadway Bridge Connector from Albany St. will close 11 p.m. Tuesday to 5 a.m. Wednesday.
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