AFTER FIVE YEARS of stops and starts, the MBTA is planning to install fare gates for commuter rail trains at North Station sometime this spring.
Fare gates at the commuter rail hubs of North, South, and Back Bay Stations have been talked about for years as a way to crack down on fare evasion on the commuter rail system, but nothing ever happened.
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About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
At an MBTA board meeting, General Manager Steve Poftak said the fare gates will start going up in March at North Station; he gave no timetable for installing gates at South Station or Back Bay Station. There are no plans to install gates at other commuter rail stations.
Poftak gave no cost estimate for the project.
Currently, conductors issue or check tickets on board commuter rail trains. But the new gates will mean passengers will have to have activated tickets in hand to pass through the gates to reach their train, so no more running at the last minute to board a train.
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