MBTA Might Actually Finish Converting to CharlieTicket System

From today's Globe, we learn that the MBTA has actually caught on to the fact that it's a royal pain in the ass to have two non-compatible fare systems operating in the same system at the same time. What is the T doing to let us know they get it? They're actually requesting money from their board of directors to finish the switch-over to the CharlieTicket system. Bostonist can only wonder what will happen if the board rejects the request.

The Globe article contains a number of chestnuts, among them the claim by T officials that there's been an attempt to post signs letting riders know which stations are on which system. We also like this quote from MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo: "Do we wish we could have converted the entire system overnight? Of course, we do. But that wasn't possible." Apparently, it also wasn't possible to do a partial switch-over that left some token-accepting turnstiles in place while introducing some Charlie Ticket turnstiles. Heaven knows, such a gradual change has never been done before. Oh, and don't forget, says the T, that the new system will prevent fare-beating (so they can rob you, but you can't rob them). Except that maybe it won't.