The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority — formerly known as the MTA — which runs the Boston subways, is replacing its token-based system with a farecard system.
The new system is called “Charley.”
Here are the original lyrics, by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes. Apparently Walter A. O’Brien was the Progressive Party candidate for Mayor of Boston in 1949; his name was McCarthyized out of the Kingston Trio version of the song, which uses an old folk tune.
Let me tell you the story
Of a man named Charley
On a tragic and fateful day
He put ten cents in his pocket,
Kissed his wife and family
Went to ride on the MTA
Charley handed in his dime
At the Kendall Square Station
And he changed for Jamaica Plain
When he got there the conductor told him,
“One more nickel.”
Charley could not get off that train.
Chorus:
Did he ever return,
No he never returned
And his fate is still unlearn’d
He may ride forever
‘neath the streets of Boston
He’s the man who never returned.
Now all night long
Charley rides through the tunnels
Saying, “What will become of me?
How can I afford to see
My sister in Chelsea
Or my cousin in Roxbury?”
Charley’s wife goes down
To the Scollay Square station
Every day at quarter past two
And through the open window
She hands Charley a sandwich
As the train comes rumblin’ through.
Chorus
As his train rolled on
Through Greater Boston
Charlie looked around and sighed,
“Well, I’m sore and disgusted
And I’m absolutely busted;
I guess this is my last long ride.”
Now you citizens of Boston,
Don’t you think it’s a scandal
That the people have to pay and pay
Vote for Walter A. O’Brien
And fight the fare increase
Get poor Charley off the MTA.
Chorus:
Or else he’ll never return,
No he’ll never return
And his fate will be unlearned
He may ride forever
‘neath the streets of Boston
He’s the man (Who’s the man)
He’s the man (Oh, the man)
He’s the man who never returned.
The reference is intentional, there's a picture of a guy on the card who's supposed to be the Charley from the song.
He's the man who never returned.
I don't get it. Anyways I thought it was the MBTA.
Here's a link to the lyrics, Gloria.
May I say grrr … of course, the T has really gone down too far up in price lately; it used to cost a mere 85 cents! As of next year, base subway fare will be $1.55. Highway robbery, I tell you.
It's always been the MBTA as far as I know. I think you're confusing it with NYC's system.
I don't see any link and I have no idea who this Charley is. Is this a Boston thing?
Oh, I must really be getting old. How can one not remember, "Charley couldn't get off of this train"?
although the history of the song goes back much further, it was a folk hit on a comic folk album of the Chad Mitchel Trio in the sixties. I'm too lazy to go to the attic and search through my dusty collection to ID the album. But for those of you who can't remember back that far, suffice it to know that a few years later, the Chad Mitchell Trio was the springboard for John Denver's career. TRY GOOGLE. Charlie on the MTA
(the man who never returned).
I just moved to DC from Somerville, MA. The improvement in public transportation defies description. Signs telling you, accurately, when the next train is coming! Trains on weekends around the time the bars close! Cleanliness! Smart-Trip cards! I love the DC Metro.
At the point that I left, half the stations had farecards, half token machines, and you couldn't use tokens at farecard stations, and vice versa, and I always seemed to have the wrong kind of thing.
The Kingston Trio version I had named O'Brien — it said "Fight the fare increase, vote for (mumble) O'Brien, get poor Charlie off the MTA."
first rider who is denied exit from the system formerly known as MTA by a faulty Charley card gets free lunch sandwiches for life, right?
It was the MTA ("Metropolitan Transit Authority") until 1964. The song was a humorous protest about a 5-cent fare increase, collected upon exiting the system, the idea being that Charlie got on the train with his 10 cent fare but didn't have a nickel to get off.