MARTA ticket vending machines still were not accepting debit cards Thursday, as the transit agency continued to test a software fix for the problem.
“We’re still in the same place we were the other day,” MARTA spokeswoman Cara Hodgson said late Thursday afternoon. “We have credit [cards] back up and operating. The only thing we’re still working on is the debit function.”
Debit cards that require a PIN number are still not being accepted by the machines, she said. It was not known when the ticket machines would be fully restored.
Passengers can use credit cards in addition to cash to purchase fares for the transit system. The credit card function was restored Tuesday, when the company responsible for the Breeze card system was able to come up with a temporary software fix that allowed credit cards to be used.
“For now, debit cards that require a customer to enter a PIN number in order to process a transaction are not being accepted,” the agency said in a statement. “Customers who have Breeze cards with fare products already loaded on the card will not experience delays and should proceed to the fare gates for entry, as they normally would.”
MARTA passengers had to rely on only cash to purchase fares over the Labor Day holiday weekend, when a software problem wouldn’t allow Breeze cards to be used. The agency said earlier this week that the problem might involve software used to help make the Breeze card system compliant with major credit and debit card companies’ security requirements.
