Nowadays I walk almost everywhere. I live near Central Square – a huge boon – and can walk to the library, the grocery store, the fish market, the hardware store, the recycling center, the ice creamery, or the Indian bistro in 15 minutes or less. If I need to travel farther afield, I walk 10 minutes to the T station and take the clean and cushy Red Line.

Take Haymarket for example, the historic outdoor food market in Boston where, on a frenzied Saturday afternoon, you might find 25 tomatoes, 20 bananas, or 5 pounds of carrots for $1. We buy almost all of our produce there, and to get there, we take the T.

On our first trip to Haymarket, we spent exactly $11 on food and $11 on subway fare. I felt kind of disheartened, even though the savings from Haymarket justified the transit cost, but my boyfriend said, “I think it’s cheaper if you have a CharlieCard.”

The CharlieCard

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) issue CharlieTickets and CharlieCards. (It seems needlessly confusing to name them both Charlie, but okay.) The CharlieTicket is a paper stub that you can obtain from a fare machine in any subway station. The CharlieCard is plastic, like a driver’s license. You can use a CharlieTicket or a CharlieCard to pay subway or bus fare. You can also pay bus fare with cash.

Being n00bs, we had purchased CharlieTickets and were charged $2.75 per subway ride. By comparison, if you use a CharlieCard, you pay just $2.25 per subway ride. That’s a savings of 18%!

There is no fee to obtain a CharlieCard. It’s not registered under anyone’s name, and you can even get extra cards for loaning to guests. I don’t know why the MBTA offer such huge discounts via CharlieCards. I can only assume that they want the data, even anonymous data. Why they bother with CharlieTickets at all, I have no idea.

So what’s the catch? At the time of writing this post, I have concluded that there is none. There is no reason to use a CharlieTicket. The CharlieCard is free and can save you money from your very first ride.

The tricky part was getting my hands on one.

The Quest

It took me seven attempts over several days to get a CharlieCard.

Take 1. I started online. Between then and now, the MBTA have updated their website, probably for the better. The old website had a button labeled “Charlie: Buy it Online”. I clicked it, only to be told that “CharlieCards are available at any one of our stations, pass sales offices, or retail vendors” – but not online. (And even that information turned out to be incorrect.)

Take 2. On Labor Day, we set out to explore. We entered Central Square station, right under a large sign that says “PURCHASE CharlieCards/Tickets”. There were two fare machines, but no option to purchase a CharlieCard. There were no service agents around, either, so there was no one to ask.

Take 3. We decided to try one of the retail vendors published on the website. The third store on the list was nearby, a supermarket. We walked up and down the sidewalk for 5 minutes, counting street numbers, but couldn’t find the store. (Apparently the entrance is on a different street.)

Take 4. My boyfriend consulted the internet again. “It looks like we can get CharlieCards at Downtown Crossing. Let’s get one-way tickets now, and then we can get CharlieCards on the way back.”

It was a good plan. We strolled through Boston Common, visited the statue of “Make Way for Ducklings”, and ate dinner in Chinatown. I forgot all about the quest until my boyfriend led us to Downtown Crossing for the ride home.

Inside we found a ticketing office designated “CharlieCard Store”. It was closed for Labor Day. I railed. “It’s a physical store? Why isn’t it just a kiosk, like the fare machines?” We bought CharlieTickets and went home.

Take 5. The next day I walked to Central Square to run some errands. I had also identified two more stores that were supposed to carry CharlieCards and was determined to come back with one in hand. First I tried the convenience store. The cashier rummaged around and came up empty-handed.

Take 6. I headed to the other store, a check-cashing place. When I got there, I cupped my hand against the glass and gazed into a vacant retail space. The check-cashers were gone. I walked home.

Take 7. Two days later I was back in Central Square. I popped into the same convenience store on a whim and asked for a CharlieCard. This time the cashier shocked me by producing one.

The Denouement

So now I have a CharlieCard.

Why would the MBTA make it so difficult to get one? In fact, people’s experiences seem to vary. One person joked about his own struggles with the CharlieCard at a recent party, but another said that she’s never had problems getting one. I suspect that it depends on which stations you use.

In any case, there is hope. The new MBTA website states clearly that “You can get a free, blank CharlieCard from an MBTA Customer Service Agent” from specific stations only, or from the CharlieCard Store at Downtown Crossing. (As of this post, those stations are Alewife, Arlington, Ashmont, Back Bay, Dudley Square, Forest Hills, Harvard Square, Haymarket, Kenmore, Maverick, North Station, Oak Grove, Park, Ruggles, and Wonderland.) We can hope that this clearer information will save a lot of headache in the future.

Meanwhile, my boyfriend didn’t bother to get a CharlieCard himself, though he tried to sympathize with me. He simply waited for MIT to issue his employee ID, which doubles as an unlimited CharlieCard. That’s right: MIT is paying all of his transit fares. I could feel happy for him but don’t.

At least it only costs $4.50 to go to Haymarket now.