MBTA riders who receive monthly commuter rail passes through work will be issued CharlieCards starting in April.
In an advisory sent out to corporate subscribers, the T announced that riders will be given cards, instead of paper tickets, which will come preloaded with monthly LinkPasses for trains and buses. The corporate CharlieCards will work the same on all subways, buses and Green Line trolleys; for commuter rail trips, cardholders will be asked to show conductors the back of their cards during the ticketing process.
In January, the T launched “a pilot program involving CharlieCards with a monthly pass printed on them,” T spokesperson Joe Pesaturo told BostInno in an email Wednesday morning. “These cards have been used as ‘flash passes’ on board commuter rail trains, then they are used like any other CharlieCard.”
The pilot program was set to run through March. But the T’s interim general manager, Frank DePaola, decided to extend the program after riders provided “very positive” feedback, Pesaturo said.
CharlieCard/monthly passes are available to all corporate pass subscribers and riders who purchase monthly passes through the T’s website.
TransitMatters’ Marc Ebuńa, who was the first to report on the T’s plan to phase out commuter rail tickets, writes: “This isn’t quite the full implementation of the CharlieCard system that was originally planned with the rollout of CharlieCard…For now, we’ll settle for a little extra convenience, even if it’s really only a half-step in the right direction.”
