AFC Subway Gate Questions

[Philip Busch]

Last week at Downtown Crossing, I put in my Charlie (monthly) pass
through the machine and it came out the other side and accepted it but
the gate never opened. There was a customer service person way over by
the vending machines, but since he was so occupied with a gazillion
other people I left the station and walked to Park Street and got my
connection to the Red Line from there.

Are there any "secret" ways to get the gates to open in this situation?
Can they be pulled apart, etc? It happened a couple times awhile back
and when I stepped away from the gates, they eventually opened but not
so this last time.

Also, what is the protocol when gates are wide open when you arrive?
Is it OK to walk through or is it best to wait until the gate closes or
locate an already closed one? It doesn't make much sense to me to put
a pass through an "open" gate.

IMO there really should be a minimum of TWO customer service agents at
every station; one to help people at the vending machines and another
at the gates.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

-Phil B.

[Jass]

Secret ways? You mean besides waiting for someone to exit so you can
walk in through the open gate?

[Sean Sullivan]

I've had this problem happen 4 times (at Park St, Back Bay twice, and
North Station), and I have witnessed it happening to someone else (at
Sullivan Square).

First incident was at Park St, and the agent told me that it was the
lockout period (since the card showed as already used at this station
when put through again). I said no, the problem is that it took the
fare (counted the card as used) without opening the gates. He said no,
the gates must have opened. I said no, he said well, they must have
opened a little bit, at least, maybe it didn't open wide enough. I said
no, the gates didn't budge even the slightest bit, they stayed firmly
closed. He said well, someone exiting stole my fare by walking out the
gate after I had put the card through (not true, but someone was
exiting when I finally caught his attention). I pleaded to have the
problem reported, but he simply didn't believe me. He was quite
friendly - all along, it was clear he would let me through, and
realized that something had gone wrong - but he simply could not
believe that the AFC gate would register a pass without opening the
gate.

Second incident was at Back Bay; I was unable to locate an attendant.

The third incident was at North Station, the agent looked at me with a
puzzled expression but went to the AFC ticket vending machines and
produced a single-fare ticket. Once again, I tried to have the problem
reported, but she didn't show the slightest trace of believing my story
about the pass being registered without the gate opening. I have no
idea what she thought actually happened with me.

Fourth incident was at Back Bay. This time two police officers were
standing next to me, and I pointed at the gate with loud upset noises.
They were alert and responsive, and one of them gave very clear
information about how to get through (apparently they knew about the
problem). He said I was blocking a sensor, and needed to back up
slightly for three seconds. I did this, and the gate opened.

With this insight, I realized a common thread - the AFC gates failed to
open when I was carrying shopping bags! Apparently when I'm putting a
card through the AFC, the position of a dangling shopping bag is just
right to interfere with the system.

So now I carefully stand behind the plane of the AFC gate's front
panel, put the card through, keep standing there while reaching over to
collect my card. The gate has opened every time.

When I saw someone else get stranded by the same problem, I recounted
the "step back for three seconds" fix. The customer tried it, and the
gate opened.

This is going to be a problem with visitors to Boston. Even if locals
get trained by trial and error into the "right" posture for standing
and carrying bags when using the fare gates, out-of-town people won't
have a clue, and it seems that the MBTA agents aren't aware of the
problem

-- Sean

[Sean Sullivan]

A follow-up: I overlooked the original poster's note that he tried the
back-up technique, and the gate didn't open on this occasion. If that
fails, I don't know what to suggest.

[toffner]

I had the same thing happen at hynes, only once. I just walked through
when someone exited.

The other thing ive noticed about bags is that when i am carrying them,
i nearly ALWAYS trigger the "two people sneaking in on one fare" buzzer.

[mbsbusguy]

When you put the ticket into the machine and it pops out be prepared to
push the gates back with
both hands. This has almost always worked for me. I take the approach
that they won't work and
pry them apart. The AFC people are completely useless and try to
oversea too many machines at once.

Worse still is if a transit cop is there and seeing you are having
problems does nothing. This is
the norm at Downtown Crossing as the harried AFC tries to clear jammed
sales machines and watch
7-9 machines.

Watch out for the people that try to walk up you back to go through for
free.