An Open Letter to the MBTA
To Whom it may Concern,
Tonight (March 27), at around 8:00, a few of my friends and I arrived at the Copley Square T station. We found that despite being barely a minute late, our Student Passes no longer worked. We were then each forced to pay for our fare despite already having paid for the pass, but one of us did not have enough money. We explained to the agent that she did not have enough money to get through, but he refused to let her through, knowing that he was stranding her overnight until her card worked again. We were then able to find some money to pay for her fare, but when she put it on her friend's Charlie Card (she did not have one, only a Student Pass), the machine would not let her through, because the card had already been used. We explained this to the agent, and he still refused her entry, even though he had seen her pay for the trip. Eventually we found still more money and she was able to go through, but the whole experience was very discouraging.
The worst part was not that the agent forced us to pay for the trip three times, but that he was willing to knowingly perform the almost inhuman act of stranding a mere high school freshman girl in Boston for an entire night over a matter of one minute. I hope I don't need to spell out all the dangers this would leave her in. The agent acted extremely rudely and insensitively throughout the entire exchange.
At the very least, my friend deserves an apology. Please reply to this with some sort of explanation, and by then I will be able to give you contact information for my friend. In the long term, however, I'd like to see the MBTA give higher regard to students. As it is, we're treated as though we were criminals, even in cases when the MBTA is solely at fault, such as when we were issued non-functional Student Passes this January. The agents acted as though we were intentionally creating jams and refused to help us. And when passes arrived late one month, an agent said, and I quote, "Oh, I know they arrived late... my daughter had the same problem. You need to pay." We are paying customers, not criminals, and it is unacceptable for us to be treated in this way.
I have already informed some of my other friends about this exchange, and will continue to do so. We currently take the T to and from school every day, but if we are forced to worry about being stranded in the middle of the night, we may have to seek out other means of transportation.
Again, if you need to identify the agent, he was working in Copley Square at 8:00 PM on March 27.
Thank you for your time in looking into this matter.
Michael Behr
