First, there were little paper tickets that cost a nickel. Then there was the nickel itself, because until just after World War II, a nickel was the only thing that made subway turnstiles go round. Then came the dime, followed by the token. And, since the 1990s, there has been the Metro Card, recognizable, bendable, losable and not always reliable.
Now that familiar symbol of daily life is on the way out.
Last Monday, the city’s transit system took a significant step toward a more modern way for passengers to pay their fares. Starting late next year, they will use cell phones or certain kinds of credit or debit cards at the turnstiles in the subway or the fareboxes on buses.
A committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a $573 million contract for a new fare payment system adapted from the one in use for several years on the London Underground and London’s commuter railroads. New electronic readers will be installed in 500 subway turnstiles and on 600 buses in New York beginning late next year and will reach the rest of the city’s subway stations and buses by late 2020.
The 5.8 to 6 million people in New York City that get on the subway every day will no longer have to face frustrating waits in long lines at card-dispensing machines in subway stations, though there will still be machines for people who do not have cellphones or credit or debit cards.
The push to modernize the way fares are paid comes during a disastrous year for the subway system, with delays, rush-hour malfunctions and worse: a train derailment in Manhattan in mid-June, that injured dozens of people and raised concerns over whether the subway was even safe. Service deteriorated so much that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo declared a state of emergency in June.
The new system will replace the MetroCard, but MetroCards will not be phased out until 2023 — 30 years after they replaced tokens for subways and buses. Until then, passengers can pay their fares the new way or with a MetroCard.
The transit agency is hiring the same company that designed the system in London, which is also the company that developed MetroCards a generation ago. In London, the card that riders use is called the Oyster. In New York, the name has yet to be determined.
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