Tag: MetroCards

Is that 17 Sacagawea’s in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

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Happy fare hike Monday.  Actually, the fares jumped over the weekend, but most of us wouldn’t have noticed until today.

So now that we have a $2.25 fare, your pants just got heavier.  How so?  Well, if you buy a single ride with a $5 bill, you’re going to get back two dollar coins plus 3 quarters.  Awesome.

God help you if you paid for it with a $20.  That’s 17 dollar coins plus 3 quarters.

$20 bill goes in, 20 coins come out.

Granted, even a few days ago, it still would have been 18 dollar coins…but still.  It’s pretty insane.

The bigger problem is going to be the little old ladies that have to break out their coin purse full of nickels to get up to the 25 cents.  You know there ain’t no damn way grandma is going to break another dollar if she doesn’t have to.

At least the machines don’t take pennies!

The Greatest List of Subway Tips Ever Created

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(coming soon)

For the first ever SUBWAY Monthly newsletter, I’m thinking of creating the greatest list of subway riding tips ever.  I’m not sure how I’m going to aggregate it just yet.  Or even how it will be arranged.  Luckily, I have a lot of ideas.

For one, I’m going to reach out to as many transit experts as I can to see what they have to say.  I’m hoping I can get some pretty big names.

Secondly, I’m thinking of aggregating great tips from riders like you.  If you’ve got a good tip, let me know using this form.  It will send an email directly to the SUBWAYblogger team for review.  If we like your tip, you’ll get full credit in the newsletter.

These transit tips can include things like maximizing your MetroCard usage and bonuses.  How to time the perfect ride and hit all of your transferrs.   Where’s the best place to wait on the platform for the train?  Are there such things as “free rides.”?  Etc.

Use this form to submit your tips for SUBWAY Monthly. If you’d like your name or website linked to with your tip, be sure to include your info.

If you’ve got the scoop, we’ll make it known and give you full credit.

Anyway, that’s just one of the ideas we’re working on.  I think it could turn out to be pretty awesome.  Of course, only subscribers (free) will get a copy!

Another Metrocard Machine Run-in

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It took me nearly 15 minutes to get a new Metrocard today.  What a freaking cluster f*ck.

I happen to be at a station that is under construction, so it only has two machines at this entrance.  Of course, there’s always a line because there’s only the two machines.

So I got in line.  Once I finally got to the front of the line, I’ll bet you can guess what happened.  No credit cards.

For whatever reason, the credit card reader wasn’t able to read my card.  At first I thought it was just me.

So I got back into line for the second machine.  From there, I saw that other people were having the same issue I did with my original machine.  So I had to wait in line all overagain.

You know, I really need to get involved with TransitChex or something.  I’m getting pretty sick of this crap.

MTA Doomsday Rate Raping OK’d

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The MTA approved the doomsday budget yesterday that will allow them to hike the fares starting as early as Thursday this week.  The new budget would/will need to be approved tomorrow (Wednesday), and the new fare would kick in Thursday.

How much? Single rides would be $2.50.  The monthly unlimited Metrocard would jump to $104 at least (official source).   It could be more if the MTA picked the plan that had no service cuts.  However, it looks like there will be some service cuts in addition to the fare increase to keep the actual financial burden as low as possible.

So should I go buy 12 unlimited Metrocards right now while they are still just $81 ?  Will they be honored?  Technically, they don’t activate until their first use.

Resident Discount Metrocards

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So here’s an idea that came to my mind.  I’m sure I am not the first one to think of this, so I’m by no means trying to take credit.  I’m just trying to initiate the discussion.

What if Metrocards were priced based on residency?

People living in the 5 boros would receive a significant discount on Metrocards while people from out of town would pay the higher rate.

Let’s assume that the price of all fares are going up.  With that in mind, let’s make the out of towner rate a premium and residence get a break.  Maybe the price of a monthly unlimited card goes up to just $90 for residence.

You could sell them like TransitCheks.  Residents would simply receive their cards via mail or from their employers.  Or maybe it is just one card that automatically gets renewed month to month.  That way you would be able to verify who is a resident.

You could attach it to drivers liscences or ID cards even!

Just an idea.

MTA Police Officer Let’s Bum Skip Fare

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I saw it with my own eyes.  My jaw dropped to the ground.

I’m sure you’ve seen a homeless person with a stack of used MetroCards standing at a turnstile swiping away in hopes to find a card with a ride still left on it.  I do applaud them for trying to be legal about getting in the subway.  Have to hand it to them there.

However, today I saw an MTA cop just let a guy in because he was tired of seeing the guy swipe (not the guy pictured above). 

It wasn’t even that busy.  The cop said, “You know what, just stop.  Come through.”  

With that, he opened the emergency door and let the guy through.

An act of kindness, perhaps.  However, if anyone else did that, he’d take pleasure in writing them a summons.  

The bottom line was he was just tired of hearing that high pitch ring of the cards being denied.

PHOTO CREDIT

New Metrocard Today

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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 everyday, that means there’s millions in revenue everyday. However, it seems like that money is already spent before they even have it.

I also love how casually they say that the missing money was just for maintenance and repairs….nothing major. It’s the lack of repairs and maintenance that has caused the subway system to crumble in the first place!

Then you look around at stations like 59th Columbus Cirlce which is taking 2+ years to refurbish and you wonder what the hell is going on. They can build 30 story apartment buildings in a year, but they can’t pour fresh concrete and lay some tiles in less than 2 when it comes to the subway.

It’s a big scam.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

MTA Discriminates Against Dimes

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What an outrage. Where’s Al Sharpton when you need him. Oh yeah…he’s busy trying to get himself on TV with the Jena 6. Anyway, we’ve recently learned that the MTA hates dimes.

Yup…you heard it right here. The MTA Metrocard machines do not take dimes. They can handle dimes, quarters, and those retarded dollar coins, but not so much with the dimes.

Turns out the proposed fare hike should only be 10 cents, but since the MetroCard machines can’t dispense change with dimes, they decided to round up to a quarter.

It’s enough of a pain in the ass when you get a bunch of those dollar coins back. If the fare were $2.10, you’d get 45 pounds of nickels back. I say let them make it $2.10. We’ll then take all the nickels, put them in a sock, and get to swinging!

Seriously, what were they thinking when they got these machines?