[scalziand]

Even though the Boston MBTA was mentioned as an example of a system that's doing things right, I have a couple more things to add. On the plus side, MBTA and the other regional transit authorities have been very good at ensuring Charlie card compatibility across the systems. On the downside, they seem very reluctant to find some way to accept the Charlie cards on commuter rail, instead requiring that passes still be put on paper tickets so the conductors can get their punch on. Said tickets are at least compatible with bus and subway readers, but they are much slower, using a magnetic strip instead of an rfid chip.