The only blog written from the NYC Subway system

Anyone have the new automatically refilling MetroCards that the MTA released a few weeks ago? It works like an EZPass almost.  You fill it up with $40, then when the balance gets low, it automatically refills itself (aka charges your credit card). Sounds convenient if you are a pay-as-you-go rider. As you know, SUBWAYblogger is [...]

Thanks though! Wouldn’t you know it.  Just as the MTBA up north digs into their own issues with computer geeks hacking the CharlieCard, it turns out we have our own homegrown hackers right here in NYC. I had written a post wishing the MIT students would come down here and beat up on the Metrocard [...]

I could have sworn I just saw that the Metrocard machines were down again.  As I walked into my station, I pass a whole wall of Metrocard machines.  All of them said “CASH ONLY” across the top. There were a lot of confused looking people too. Did anyone have any problems on the way home [...]

Well, the Metrocard drama seems to have continued today, and still no explanations. Paul J. Fleuranges, the chief spokesman for New York City Transit, the arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that runs the subways and buses, declined to speculate on the cause of the breakdown, but said “it was a systemwide outage affecting all [...]

Did you try to buy a new Metrocard this morning between 8:30AM and 10:30AM?  Hope you didn’t try to pay with a credit card, because the machines weren’t taking them. For unknown reasons, dozens if not hundreds of Metrocard machines stopped taking electronic payments.  Not a big deal if you were going for a $2.00 [...]

Ever thought of just jumping the turnstile when your Metrocard stopped working for some unknown reason?  You know you have plenty of cash/rides left on it, so it must be something wrong with the machine.  So screw it, just jump over and move on with your life. Well, that little maneuver is going to cost [...]

I just bought a new Metrocard, and was again reminded of how badly we monthy unlimited users were hosed in the fare hike. I only bring it up because of yesterday’s news of a $3 billion deficit in the MTA budget. Where the hell is all the money going? If there are millions of rides [...]

If you went to the MetroCard machine today to buy a new monthly card and felt an odd sensation in your rear, that was the MTA raping you. Ok, perhaps a bit strong, but the point remains the same. The new fare increase kicks in today.  That means your $76 monthly card just jumped to [...]