Metrocard Paypass

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Ever get stuck in front of a turnstile trying to sort out pocket full of MTA and MBTA tokens?

Nope.............never had a problem! I didn't carry NYC and Boston tokens together. I carried change in one pocket, and tokens in the other. Took it out of my pocket on the way into the station, and was ready when I got to the turnstile.

Tokens were simple and effective...........

arrow wrote:WMATA is many steps ahead of the MTA in terms of fares. They have had the SmartCard for a long time already and it works very well there. You do have the option of buying a regular farecard as well.

The SmartCard works in DC because it's a simple system. Even so, it's only for WMATA fares...Metro, and buses that are equipped to read it (not all are). If you ride one of the suburban bus systems, MARC or VRE, you need a separate fare or ticket.

If MTA really wanted to make things simpler, they'd get together with all the transit agencies in the region and figure out how to make a SmartCard system work for any mode of transportation in the metro NY area, ala EZ Pass.

NHRR WTBY wrote:

arrow wrote:WMATA is many steps ahead of the MTA in terms of fares. They have had the SmartCard for a long time already and it works very well there. You do have the option of buying a regular farecard as well.

The SmartCard works in DC because it's a simple system. Even so, it's only for WMATA fares...Metro, and buses that are equipped to read it (not all are). If you ride one of the suburban bus systems, MARC or VRE, you need a separate fare or ticket.

If MTA really wanted to make things simpler, they'd get together with all the transit agencies in the region and figure out how to make a SmartCard system work for any mode of transportation in the metro NY area, ala EZ Pass.

I thought that's what was happening, the PA was being the lead agency trying to get the various divisions of the MTA (NYCT, MetroNorth, LIRR), PATH and NJT(both rail and bus) to use the same fare collection system.

This would have to be a rather complex system due to the fact NJT has A LOT of fare options for the buses alone.

Well, since we're back discussing this again, I will concede one advantage with the Metrocard. That is when you buy a $10 card, they give you one extra ride, or $12 worth. Not a bad deal after all. But I still say tokens were simple and effective, and you didn't find old ones scattered on the floor around stations either...........

And one other thing. A friend of mine bought a brand new Metrocard and it wouldn't work. Employees in the booth ran the card though their computer or whatever it is, and said it was an empty used card. This was 5 minutes after he bought it brand new from the machine! We didn't have this problem with tokens either.............

Now whenever I buy any fare card or train ticket from a machine, I always get a receipt too, just in case of another such fiasco.

Hi All,

In most places these days, they ask you to swipe your credit card, punch in the yes or no answers to some quick questions, and your credit card is approved and you have bought the item. Has this approach been tried ? I generally ride Metrolink once or more a month, and the computers there, at each station readily take your credit card. Far more convenient and once properly set up, really fast.

Metrocard dispensing machines take credit cards. You wouldn't want this at the turnstile as it would slow everyone down. Not to mention what happens if you have multiple credit cards in your wallet that are smart card or Blink cards or whatever each company calls them, and they all get charged as you walk thru the turnstile. Hope they thought of that one!!

Hey, let's not forget something. Each ride in NY and Boston is the same price every time. It's milage based and time based in DC and San Fran. That's why the smart cards work so well in those systems. Being much newer and less fragmented also helps a lot.