Ring of Steel: Fare Gates at BOS, BON, & BBY

The gates also seem like they would cause a bottleneck at rush hours and you would have to make sure that you held on to your flimsy paper ticket that you bought on the train to scan at the gate at North Station.

I've been commuting via CR about 3 times a week for the past few months. The gates generally seem to be working fine. For very busy events, they simply open them all and let people through. Occasionally they're wide open because they appear to be broken. During the AM rush, each gate will have a line of a few people waiting, but the gates seem to add about 10-20 seconds to my commute, on average. Inside the gates, the waiting area does seem to have a much higher percentage of people actually taking the train somewhere.

Someone mentioned overhead gantries to sense the tickets of large numbers of passengers entering or exiting. This would not work out because the gantries may pick up RFID from tickets of persons walking by the outside (such as going to a Celtics or Bruins game) but not going into the paid area and not riding. Or if someone was headed for one group of gates and saw a shorter queue at another set, he might get sensed a second time when jumping over to the other group of gates.

These are non-issues. The first is solved with some basic range gating that would be implemented and calibrated as part of the installation, OTR tolling(eg EZPass) has handled this successfully for decades. The second is solved by using a simple stored procedure to manage the transactions database, every credit card processing company has had this for decades, it's the reason you don't get charged more than once if the POS captures your credit card more than once within a certain timeframe.

These are totally issues (I have done security research related to this problem): passive RFID systems (such as on credit cards) have ranges measured in millimeters (which is why the "tap to pay" works--the cards can't be read reliably at a distance) or require high power systems to trigger the encoded "reflection" (which could interfere with medical equipment and ADA assistive technologies) and active systems (such as EZPass or the system used to tr) require the RFID trigger to cause a battery powered system to respond. Assuming those problems were solved in a safe (passive) or convenient (I'd love a ticket the size of an EZPass) system, simply two device of whatever standard in close proximity to each other (like in a wallet together) would cause the reader to mis-read the cards. I suppose that could be fixed by using facial recognition technology to allow the person holding the mis-read cards get stopped by a guard, or having someone standing at each gate to get confirmation of a good read from every person...

It is far more reliable and less expensive to simply have gates that require the ticket holder to tap or scan their ticket or card--that technology is well known and inexpensive.

RandallW wrote: ↑Wed Feb 15, 2023 8:41 pm These are totally issues (I have done security research related to this problem): passive RFID systems (such as on credit cards) have ranges measured in millimeters (which is why the "tap to pay" works--the cards can't be read reliably at a distance) or require high power systems to trigger the encoded "reflection" (which could interfere with medical equipment and ADA assistive technologies) and active systems (such as EZPass or the system used to tr) require the RFID trigger to cause a battery powered system to respond. Assuming those problems were solved in a safe (passive) or convenient (I'd love a ticket the size of an EZPass) system, simply two device of whatever standard in close proximity to each other (like in a wallet together) would cause the reader to mis-read the cards. I suppose that could be fixed by using facial recognition technology to allow the person holding the mis-read cards get stopped by a guard, or having someone standing at each gate to get confirmation of a good read from every person...

It is far more reliable and less expensive to simply have gates that require the ticket holder to tap or scan their ticket or card--that technology is well known and inexpensive.

I agree with you on the last point, but we shouldn't let that keep us from creating a more efficient solution. The issues above aren't insurmountable, certainly, many have been solved at least in part in the loss prevention space. Manual intervention, in the form of guards, conductors walking through the train with a validator, or even "tap at the end of your trip or pay max fare" fill in where the technology doesn't quite reach yet.

I went to North Station to meet someone, got through the fare gates using a weekend pass, but when I tried to get out it told me the pass was invalid. I ended up following someone else out.

There's a cooldown to prevent multiple people using one pass. It's stupid as it can create problems like this, but thats just how they designed it.

I had this happen a few years ago after getting off at Boylston to take pictures of the PCC and Type 5. I tried to tap back in and it told me to pound sand. I figured it was because of a cool-off period (NYCTA does the same thing), so the wife and I just grabbed ice cream in the park before heading back into the subway.

NR: This instance that you remember is called a "lock-out" to prevent pass-back fare abuse...
With a NY MTA Unlimited Metrocard the period is 18 minutes at the same station or on the same bus (route)...
The MBTA likely uses something similar with its Charlie Cards or tickets...

When this problem has arisen I seek assistance from a transit employee after mentioning what the
entrance problem was...In each instance I was able to enter or continue upon satistfactory explanation...
MACTRAXX

That's why it's named after Charlie! You will either be trapped inside & have to ride forever or doomed to never reenter!

How do the fare gates work for Employees? As an Amtrak employee i can ride the downeaster for free. Do I just have to find someone to let me in?

You might be able to use your amtrak id/etc (not sure if it would work or not) but if that doesn't work just show it to an employee

Amtrak IDs will open the gate.

So, over the past couple months I've been taking advantage of the $10 unlimited all-weekend fare to ride the lines of the MBTA. My first trip, I got the Fitchburg Line in its entirety. The second, the Newburyport Line. And the third, this past weekend, portions of the Worcester Line and the entirety of the Needham and Franklin Lines, transferring between them at Ruggles. Out of the 6 trains that I was on, my ticket was only checked by a conductor once... on the Worcester Line inbound. I have no idea why the conductors didn't go through the train checking tickets. Going on this assumption, I can totally understand why fare gates are put up at North Station. Granted, if noone is collecting tickets, you're not getting the fare from a rider going intermediate-to-intermediate.

From standing in the former open air/now covered concourse at South Station, I just can't see fare gates working there. There's a greater volume of people coming through there... unless they do them at the entrance to the platforms, but there'll be quite the backups when an 8-car regional or a 11-car Acela unloads. And because of the open system of South Station's concourse, with multiple points of access even once you're through the doors (or, one set of doors right now), to the "outdoor" concourse.

Just my $.04