MBTA opens temporary CharlieCard store in Park Plaza until they can fix what's wrong with the one in Downtown Crossing
The MBTA announced today it's opening a temporary CharlieCard store in the State Transportation Building at 10 Park Plaza because of intractable air-conditioning problems that forced it to shut the normal CharlieCard store in Downtown Crossing earlier this month.
The temporary pop-up location will be open to riders at 9 AM on Thursday, July 27, and is on the second level within Conference Room 6. The State Transportation Building is located one block from the Green Line’s Boylston Station and the Orange Line’s Chinatown Station.
Riders who make it there can do all of the usual CharlieCard transactions, including replacing them, as well as adding credit to RIDE accounts and requesting and making changes on Senior CharlieCards, TAP cards and Blind Access Passes.
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I don't understand why they
I don't understand why they can provide a senior CharlieCard on the spot at the store, but it takes 8 weeks by mail. I'd think it would be faster to process without the in-person time.
Senior CharlieCard
When I got mine last July, they gave me a temporary one on the spot at the CharlieCard store, but I had to wait 8 days (not 8 weeks!) to receive the real one in the mail. Back then, they were still taking a photo to put on the card. They discontinued that the following month.
Also DTX
The station smells like piss.
We'll See
I have my doubts that store will ever open again at the Downtown Crossing location. That station has become so dystopian, so creepy, that I can't imagine anything thriving there. Add it to the list of things that will never be done by the T, like fixing the escalator at Bowdoin.
DTX
That store is there because...
1) It replaced the MBTA Pass office, which was where you went for Pass issues prior to the Charlie Card Store. The old pass office is just west of Card Store, its still there.The change was apart of their customer service change in the late 2000's when the Charlie Card system was rolled out.
2) It is in a central location. Walking distance from three lines (Red/Orange + Green).
3) It also is HC accessible, which is requires since this is also the TAP location that replaced the one in BackBay (that is now a Tasty Burger)
Park Plaza is out of the way for most. Surprised they didnt just take over one of the food stalls in the mall on the ground level. Might have been a better place than a conference room on the second floor.
Its unlikely it will ever move. They will fix the HVAC issues.. or just wait until its cooler and not bother.
I’m pretty sure taking over one of the
vacant spaces in the (ex?) first floor food court would require more prep work than taking over a conference room on the second floor. Not to mention coordination with DCAMM, which manages the building, not MassDOT.
Note that, even prior to the pandemic and the subsequent shift to hybrid and on-line meetings, the conference rooms on the second floor of the State Transportation Building were generally underutilized.
Magoo sez
A Magoo Spickwicky: With weather like this Magoo is wondering weather (pun intended) the entire system will shut down. No doubt the seats are going to be eew yucky moist from peoples’ bum sweats. Magoo.
Still scarred..
Still scarred
After standing in line during COVID in that non-air hallway of hell to renew my disabled pass, I feel for anyone who had to work in that tuna can. Just awful….
As with most things with the
As with most things with the T, I suspect that the situation here is worse than they are letting on. I hope someone will investigate this further.
Make the T free, cancel the
Make the T free, cancel the billion dollar fare system upgrade, and get rid of the CharlieCard store altogether.
Great
And right after we do that we'll bring back Michael Landon from the dead, and he can continue his unfinished series "Us" and start to write a Little House reunion we've all been waiting for.
Neither will happen so.. let it go. I agree with you, but it's not happening.
I'm allowed to dream!
I'm allowed to dream!