T’s fare fix plan delayed past 2021

MBTA officials remained tight-lipped this week about the exact reasons for an expected delay in the rollout of an all-electronic fare collection system that T officials initially planned to have in place by 2021.

General Manager Steve Poftak told the Fiscal and Management Control Board on Monday that the schedule to implement the technology was “currently being revised.” The company hired to create the system, Cubic, told investors last Thursday that it would need to adjust timelines, according to the Boston Globe.

Poftak declined to outline a new schedule, saying he did not have “concrete details” on how the plan would be adjusted going forward and that MBTA officials were in discussion with Cubic. Speaking with reporters after the meeting, he also declined to explain what prompted the delay, describing it only as a problem “with the complexity of the technology we’re asking for and the complexity of the whole project itself.”

“We’re in an active negotiation with Cubic, so I don’t think it makes sense for us to lay out in great detail what’s going on,” Poftak said. “But it is something we’re actively working on.


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