Tikkabik

So the MBTA is finally getting with the 1980s and is upgrading its fee collection system from metal tokens to charge cards, just like the BART, NYC subway and DC Metro have had for years. They've also replaced the old eggbeater-style turnstyles with newer, flashier ones that open when you insert a card with the appropriate fare.

Apparently the new pass -- called the "CharlieTicket" (in honor of the old song "Charlie on the MTA") is now standard issue at a dozen and a half stations throughout the MBTA service area, including Quincy Adams. So if you want to get on and off at one of these stations, you need to have one. But the irony is that other MBTA stations -- including major stopping points like Downtown Crossing, where I was today -- don't accept them.

"We don't take those heah," the token collector at Downtown Crossing told me. "You'll have to walk to State Street if you wanna use that."

I ended up hoofing it South Station instead -- a five minute walk on a pleasant day, so I didn't really mind that much -- but the MBTA's attempt at modernization seems half-assed at best. As a practically life-long Mass resident with years of experience riding the T I found it confusing; I pity the poor day-tripper or out-of-towner here on vacation that stumbles across this logistical nightmare and doesn't understand why they've just plugged $10 or more onto a paper ticket and still have to buy metal tokens at $1.25 each.

Now it's irony time: "Charlie on the MTA" was a protest song that was first written back in the 1940's to complain about the then-MTA's byzantine fee structure. The Charlie of the song was a fictional character doomed to ride the rails forever as he'd forgotten to take with him the extra nickle he needed to pay an exit fare.

I'm glad I knew where to go to use the card, otherwise I might still walk forever 'round the streets of Boston. Then I'd be the man who never returned.