New York's MetroCard Era Ends After 31 Years (financialpost.com)
- Reference: 0180487349
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/30/1659234/new-yorks-metrocard-era-ends-after-31-years
- Source link: https://financialpost.com/pmn/new-york-subway-ends-its-metrocard-era-and-switches-fully-to-tap-and-go-fares
More than 90% of subway and bus trips are now paid using the tap-and-go system, and the agency says the changeover saves at least $20 million annually in MetroCard-related costs. The new system also introduces automatic fare capping: riders get unlimited travel within a seven-day period after 12 paid rides, maxing out at $35 a week once fares rise to $3 in January. Riders who prefer not to link a credit card or phone can purchase reloadable OMNY cards.
Existing MetroCards will continue to work into 2026, allowing riders time to use up remaining balances. The MetroCard's arrival in 1994 was itself a significant shift from the brass tokens that had been in use since 1953. London and Singapore have long operated similar contactless systems; San Francisco launched its own tap-to-pay system earlier this year, joining Chicago and other U.S. cities.
[1] https://financialpost.com/pmn/new-york-subway-ends-its-metrocard-era-and-switches-fully-to-tap-and-go-fares
Re: Wait (Score:2)
They got rid of tokens like 20 years ago in New York. It even made the newspapers when they took out the last coin slots and retired the revenue collection train.
Boston had contactless cards and mag stripe tickets for the nearly 20 years I've lived here. They're transitioning to credit-card nfc payments now.
DC never had tokens.
Philadelphia finally joined the 20th century and went fare-card only about 10 years ago.
I recall going to London on vacation In The Year 2000 and being taken somewhat aback by their m
"will continue to work into 2026" (Score:2)
meaning - what - the cards will stop working after four or five more days?
Cards are still in play (Score:5, Informative)
As the article says, if you don't want to use your phone (or have the appropriate type of phone) or link your bank account, you can purchase [1]an OMNY card [omny.info].
Which is good for people who may visit NYC and not want to have another app they'll never use again clogging their phone or, more importantly, not worrying about your bank account getting whacked when someone breaks into the system.
MetroCards were nice because if you were visiting for the day you could buy one with cash, use it, and either keep it as a memento or throw it away. They fit easily anywhere you could put a credit card and since they were so thin, no one knew if you had one. They were, in essence, [2]a form of multipass [giphy.com].
Oh well, time marches on.
[1] https://omny.info/omny-card
[2] https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExOXJ0YmhsbTJrYnFrdDU5anJzc3B0NmVueWpnc2E0a3JxYjdlMXZrYSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/H7Fbn0QHGDWW4/giphy.webp
Re: (Score:2)
Actually it threw me off the first time I went back to NYC when they had switched over is that there is no app (at least not yet), it just uses the card from your Android/Apple Wallet.
Re: Cards are still in play (Score:2)
I just tap my actual credit card on it
Linked accounts everywhere (Score:4, Insightful)
I really dislike the move to "relationships" for everything, especially travel-related stuff. I understand why it happens, but it makes one-time-use a massive pain.
I had to drive around LA for work a couple months ago, and finding somewhere to park without preinstalling some application I didn't know I'd need was a hassle.
Those applications are also generally super invasive, scraping every bit of data they can. (This bothers me less than it used to; I use a relatively blank phone when traveling now.)
I do not wish to enter into a relationship with your corporation, I need a fucking two hour parking spot.
Re: (Score:3)
That's why they take contactless cards..
Tap your existing credit/debit card on the reader and off you go.
Re: (Score:2)
> I do not wish to enter into a relationship with your corporation, I need a fucking two hour parking spot.
Even better, that relationship with the corporation includes a contract of adhesion that can have an arbitrary number of pages of terms for you to agree with. So, to park for those two hours, you can be giving up tons of rights, including your constitutional right to sue, probably in perpetuity and not just for matters related to that parking spot. Thanks Judge Easterbrook.
Re: (Score:2)
> I do not wish to enter into a relationship with your corporation, I need a fucking two hour parking spot.
Perhaps we consumers should make it very personal too.
Register yourself as HRM Asshole McFuckface and insist on signing up for ALL of their communications channels. Then sue them for emotional distress when they send you horrifically offensive correspondence that includes foul language.
Re: (Score:2)
So... they got rid of one card to replace it with an app or another card... Genius!!!
Re: (Score:2)
It's a third option. You can use a contactless debit or credit card, install their software on your phone and link it to your bank account, or get a refillable OMNY card which you can pay for in cash.
Full information can be found at [1]the OMNY web site [omny.info].
[1] https://omny.info/
Re: (Score:2)
> As the article says, if you don't want to use your phone (or have the appropriate type of phone) or link your bank account, you can purchase an OMNY card.
> Which is good for people who may visit NYC and not want to have another app they'll never use again clogging their phone or, more importantly, not worrying about your bank account getting whacked when someone breaks into the system.
> MetroCards were nice because if you were visiting for the day you could buy one with cash, use it, and either keep it as a mem
One potential issue (curious about solution) (Score:3)
I took my son to London and had a great time using the Underground and the bus system. Paying with contactless credit card was very convenient. And the payment cap per day was nice. But I was left wondering about one potential issue.
What do you do if one of you doesn't have a credit card or smart device/phone with payment system? Fortunately, I had two credit cards (we didn't have a data plan in London). So no real problem for us. It still left me wondering what would people do if they a payment method for each person? i.e what if you are riding more than a few times and hit the payment cap due to swiping multiple times per ride. Seems like either a chance to be accused of fraud. Or actual fraud.
What would happen to, say, a class field trip visiting NYC? I'm genuinely curious what people do in those edge cases.
Re: (Score:3)
Children, when they travel internationally, often travel without a credit card.
Re: (Score:1)
But they generally don't travel without adults accompanying them, and those adults tend to have credit cards.
Re: (Score:3)
But the great-grandparent to your post specifically mentioned a situation where the number of uses of the same card per day for fares is capped. They did not mention what the cap is exactly and probably you won't hit it with yourself, your partner (who may be on a joint card with therefore a shared cap) and a couple of kids. What if you have five kids though, or seven? Or, what if, as that poster mentioned, you are transporting a field trip? In other words, like that poster mentioned, what about the edge ca
Re: One potential issue (curious about solution) (Score:2)
Field trips usually pay in bulk at the window or have some other bulk arrangement
Re: (Score:2)
So you're saying they had some other bulk arrangement?
Re:One potential issue (curious about solution) (Score:4, Informative)
> What do you do if one of you doesn't have a credit card or smart device/phone with payment system?
Kids in NYC get their own bus/train passes issued by the school. Also if you are a teacher in NYC you have ID, you can show the station agent and they let you all through or you can even get a form for your trip and schedule it so someone can meet you.
Re: (Score:2)
What do you do if one of you doesn't have a credit card or smart device/phone with payment system?
In London, you buy an oyster card and top it up with cash in various different places.
Re: One potential issue (curious about solution) (Score:2)
Cash in some places but not in the stations, you have to top up oyster using a bank card somewhat ironically.
The best thing about metrocards was... (Score:2)
...'the bend'
"Swipe Again at This Turnstile"
(real heads know what I'm talking about)
Re: (Score:2)
??
Never been anywhere that used a MetroCard (our local metro bus just switched to cards or cash a couple years ago).
I don't always pay for transit, but when I do, (Score:2)
I prefer paying with Federal Reserve Notes.
When the seller avoids debt (Score:2)
When the seller requires payment before providing a product or service, there's no debt and therefore no opportunity for "legal tender" to apply.
bro (Score:1)
Free public transit policies have been tested in many other cities before. What happens is -- the buses and trains become rolling homeless shelters. If you have an actual job, paying $3 to get to work is not a problem. The minimum wage in NYC is $17 per hour, so most people make more than that. On top of that, by cutting funding to the system, the system gets worse. So for productive members of society - the changes are - you keep at the very most 20 minutes of your wages by not paying bus/train fare, howev
Re: (Score:2)
Minimum wage is $17, might be able to afford a falafel a week while living in the sewers.
Livable wage is more along the lines of $80k and up.
Where was homelessness mentioned?
Re: (Score:2)
> Free public transit policies have been tested in many other cities before. What happens is -- the buses and trains become rolling homeless shelters
If that happens, then the buses and trains are being used that way out of necessity. It means that there either aren't shelters, or there are obstacles to using the shelters that make the buses and trains more functional as shelters than the designated shelters. Also, many homeless will use the buses and trains as shelters even if it does cost money.
As for places being used as toilets, the obvious problem there is the lack of actual toilets. This is not a problem just for the homeless. Most cities just don'
Re: (Score:2)
> Honestly, your bit at the end is basically just calling homeless people vermin, so I'm not sure why I am even responding to your disgusting post.
It's the usual issues. If you acknowledge that homeless people are actual people who have problems which can be partially or fully solved, then you need to work on the problems. If you think of them as vermin, then you can feel smugly superior while doing nothing (or making the problem worse). This is a common way for the religious to ignore their lord's teachings without feeling bad, though the religious are not the only ones who do this.