As MBTA leaders consider fare increases of as much as 10 percent starting July 1 and the potential for fares based on ability to pay, a top official suggested new ways to modernize fare collection.
MBTA Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve said the T should move toward an “open payment system” where riders could use phones or debit cards to pay fares and the T could maintain travelers’ accounts.
London’s transportation system, which utilizes an open payment system, allows riders to view travel history, seek refunds for delays and “top up” their credit, according to its website.
“Heading towards an open system will be a top priority,” Shortsleeve told members of the T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board.
The current Charlie Card system allows riders who have one to tap the card – even if it’s within a wallet – against a spot on the fare gate, a technological upgrade to the old token system.
Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said the establishment of the Charlie Card system foreclosed the opportunity to charge riders based on distance traveled.
“One of the mistakes that we don’t want to repeat is letting technology drive the business decision,” Pollack said. She said, “There was never a policy discussion. No one ever voted we don’t want distance-based fares.”
Subway riders pay the same fare to travel the few blocks between Copley and Arlington on the Green Line as they do between Braintree and Revere.
The control board on Monday approved a fare policy that will serve as a framework for fare discussions set to start in earnest next year. The policy allows for as much as a 10 percent hike every two years. Some transit activists claim the law limiting the size of fare increases should permit only 5 percent hikes every two years.
Claiming the MBTA has an inordinate amount of in-house fare collection infrastructure – such as a money room in Charlestown – Shortsleeve said “industry can help us” upgrade automatic fare collection and said at a bare minimum it would take three years to make a switch in technology.
The Legislature last summer freed up the MBTA to privatize services by suspending a law that requires private service providers to meet certain standards regarding the cost and quality of services.
The MBTA spends about $34 million to collect its “$600 million-plus revenue every year,” Shortsleeve said.
“We have about 600 gate failures per year,” said Shortsleeve, who said when gates fail they remain open for safety reasons. If a vendor were to handle the gates, the vendor would pay the agency for gate failures instead of the T losing money now when gates are open and passengers walk through without paying, Shortsleeve said.
Shortsleeve suggested an account-based payment system could be necessary to move towards a means-based fare system, where the cost of a ride would vary based on a customer’s ability to pay. At least two members of the control board have advocated moving towards means-based fares.
