1.4 Million CharlieCards Distributed

Reprinted, with permission, from the March 26, 2007, issue of Passenger Transport.

Boston’s MBTA Reports 1.4 Million CharlieCards in Circulation

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston announced that it has distributed and issued approximately 1.4 million of its CharlieCard farecards as of 60 days after the full implementation of the farecards began on Jan. 1, 2007, and about 858,000 of the cards had been used by that time. The agency also reported that the 100th retail sales terminal entered service on March 15, with 52 more retailers in line to receive the terminals.
The MBTA discontinued 80 years of token sales on Dec. 6, 2006, when it sold its last token in preparation for the system-wide introduction of the CharlieCard. The smart card can be used now throughout the MBTA’s bus and subway lines; commuter rail and Inner Harbor Ferry boat lines will join the CharlieCard system later. The plastic CharlieCards work like debit cards. They are equipped with a microchip that allows customers to add value at vending machines and tap a computerized reader before boarding an MBTA vehicle. MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas explained that, while the ultimate conversion to automatic fare collection had been underway for many years, the final work came together in 2006 with the installation of equipment in the system’s stations. He described how the MBTA did outreach with specific rider populations before launching the CharlieCard campaign for the general public. “We held dozens upon dozens of outreach efforts through councils on aging, senior citizen centers, etc., throughout the MBTA system, to help seniors have their photos taken and convert them from their citizen identification cards to CharlieCards,” Grabauskas said.
This program also included members of the disability community who use MBTA’s Transportation Access Program card. As a result, he said, “we were able, by the end of 2006, to get about 130,000 of the new cards into the hands of senior/TAP card holders.” Another 200,000 riders who participate in employer-based transit pass programs also received the CharlieCards by the end of the year, along with about 60,000 college students.
In addition to helping these riders become comfortable with the new cards, Grabauskas said, the outreach allowed the MBTA to test the system as it converted each station to the CharlieCard. About a third of the system’s stations were ready to accept the CharlieCard in the summer of 2006, and the last was converted on Dec. 22, 2006.

Spreading the Word
The MBTA launched its major promotional campaign for the CharlieCard on Dec. 4, continuing through the month.
“During that time, we literally had staff in each of the stations, including bus hubs. We had the regular staff members, plus about 300 additional employees—we called them ambassadors—who spent part of their work day handing out CharlieCards that were glued into a folder. The folder included information on the card, what it’s for, why you want it. We handed out about a million cards by New Year’s.” Grabauskas continued: “We made the business decision that we would distribute cards at no cost, because we wanted to maximize use of the smart card for many reasons. We were successful in getting them out to the public by Jan. 1.” During the same period, the MBTA conducted what the general manager called a “very robust communications program” including ads in stations and on board vehicles; in newspapers, with print ads in many different languages; and TV and radio broadcast spots. “We made a push so people would see the advantage of using the CharlieCard,” Grabauskas said. “The MBTA held awareness events, beginning with the Dec. 4 kickoff. We also made a big deal of selling the last token, to draw attention to the fact that, while we’ll still accept tokens, we’re not selling any more.” The card, and the MBTA’s paper CharlieTicket, take their names from the 1959 hit song by the Kingston Trio, “Charlie on the MTA.”