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New York’s MetroCard to be phased out

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The MetroCard, New York’s famous transportation card.

The MetroCard soon to retire! Almost 30 years after replacing the good old tokens that were used to take the metro, it is the turn of the MetroCard itself to be replaced. This very practical magnetic card is essential today for taking subways and buses: a small gesture and the subway turnstiles are unlocked and the bus ticket is validated.
But all this will therefore be ancient history. The New York transport authority, the MTA, has just decided to replace the MetroCard with much more modern means, smartphones and some credit cards. As is already done in the London Underground, New York users and tourists will have to lock their phone or bank card against terminals to pass the turnstiles or access the bus.

MetroCard permanently replaced in 2023

The MTA has already signed a contract for $ 573 million with a company specializing in the adaptation of current turnstiles. And the work will go quickly: the MTA specifies that, from 2019, the turnstiles of some 500 stations and 600 buses will be equipped! The new system will be available everywhere in 2020 and the MetroCard will be definitively withdrawn in 2023. The agenda is set!
If you have a MetroCard in your pocket, or if you are going to New York soon, be sure to keep your MetroCard safe: it will soon become a collector’s item and a piece of New York transportation history.

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I founded the © New York blog in 1999. Objective: to help you prepare your trip to New York as well as possible! Please do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail at [email protected]. NEW: discover my 256-page guide to New York published in May 2019: Destination New York.—

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