By Zoe Rosenberg
Soon coming to the New York Transit Museum’s archives:
the MetroCard. The MTA is expected to move forward with a plan to roll
out electronic readers for a pay-as-you-go system that will allow subway
and bus riders to wave a cellphone or certain kinds of credit or debit
cards to pay their fare.
The New York Times reports
that the MTA is expected to confirm a $573 million contract for the
system that will replace the MetroCard. “It’s the next step in bringing
us into the 21st century, which we need to do,” said MTA chairman Joe
Lhota. “It’s going to be transformative.”
Here’s how it will work: the MTA will install electronic
readers on 500 subway turnstiles and 600 buses beginning in late 2018,
with the goal of reaching the entire transit system by 2020. The new
system will allow riders to use their cellphone, debit or credit card,
or a new tap card to pay for trips on the system, the New York Post says.
The tap card will address a concern raised around the
phasing-out of the MetroCard about making the new payment system
equitable for the economically disadvantaged. The MetroCard will be
gradually phased out, but will be an option of pay alongside the new
electronic scanners through 2023.
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Source: CURBED NEW YORK (via The Empire Report)
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