New York subway tokens may go way of dodo bird

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[foreverfree]

New York subway tokens may go way of dodo bird

For more than half a century, the New York subway token has been the magic key to pass through the turnstiles and board a train in underground Gotham. But soon it may be a curiosity of the past.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates New York City’s subway and bus systems, is taking a hard look at replacing the token with a fare card. Why? It’s all about saving money.

Introduced almost a decade ago, the fare card has become increasingly more popular over the years, and combining that with the cost of producing and collecting the tokens, it looks like the cards will soon be the only way to take Pelham 123.

[foreverfree]

This was all over the NYDN's front page about 3 weeks ago so it's not exactly hot news. If this has been posted already on FR let us know. Thank you.

foreverfree

(Who first used a FunPass last May, the day I contemplated Ground Zero)

[DonQ]

I've lived in NYC and in Washington DC and relied on the subway systems in both. The beauty of the NYC system was using the tokens ... one token would get you to all but two or three spots on the entire subway system. A fixed price which became a bargain if you lived on the outskirts of the outlying boroughs. And the bargain was significant; although you might live on the outer edge of Queens (as I did), you could go shopping at the discount stores in lower Manhattan and usually save enough on your purchases to more than compensate for the cost of the subway tokens.

Also, quite frankly, the use of the token actively discouraged fare rises in the system. To raise the fares it was necessary for the subway system to not only change the price of the token but also, to prevent hoarding, change the token itself, which required minting and moving tons of new tokens and refitting the turnstyles and dispensers and putting up with a public angry about having to buy new and more expensive tokens and so forth; so daunting a project that the subway system did it only at intervals of 3 or 4 years.

On the other hand, the DC subway system uses the fare card and it is a burden on the commuter. The cardboard of the fare card can only survive so many turnstyles, so if you load up a lot of money value in one farecard you may be seriously inconvenienced when the fare card starts to turn to papier mache before it's used up its money value. The entire value of the card can be lost if the card gets damp, is exposed to magnetism or even rubs up against another magnetic strip card. It also eliminates bargains in long distance travel; living out in the burbs makes for an expensive, not a cheap, commute into downtown DC. And, worse, it is now very very easy for the subway system to yank up the rates because it takes only a tiny bit of fiddling with the HQ computers and suddenly every turnstyle on the system is deducting a little more from your card for every trip ... perhaps you weren't even aware of the fare change. In fact, they already have rigged the computers to charge a little more during rush hours than at other times -- I would have thought it would be better to make rush hours cheapers in order to better encourage subway usage over private automobiles.

How I long for the old NYC style token system!