While Jay Walder, the incoming MTA head, wants to replace the MetroCard with a contactless fare card similar to London’s Oyster Card or DC’s SmartCard, New York City Transit is forging ahead with its current credit card-based smartcard system. In 2006, MasterCard and the MTA teamed up to bring a “Tap & Go” fare payment system to certain stops along the Lexington Ave. line, and now the agency plans to expand the program to eight popular city bus lines. Buses along the M14, M23, M79, M86, M101, M102, M103 and BxM7 routes will be equipped with SmartCard technology that can handle any major credit card equipped with a swipe-less RFID chip. The death knell for the MetroCard rings louder.
8 comments
Ben, how does this system handle transfers to the subway (or buses not in the pilot program)? Any idea?
Good question. I’m not sure, and since the trial ended on Lex, the site doesn’t seem to be up anymore. I think it worked similar to a pay-per-ride MetroCard with transfers and such.
Credit cards have a set life span like Metrocards about 2 years, but Smartrip & ORCA cards can last far longer. WMATA says a Smartrip card can last over 5 years if handled properly.
Now are these smart cards or they actually bank issued credit/ debit cards. There is a functional difference between the two types of cards in how they are programmed despite being physically similar.
I don’t know about the death knell. If people want to still save money for multiple rides, they’ll go with a 30-day unlimited metrocard or at least a 15% off multi-fare metrocard. This will leave a small percentage of people who actually use the tap-and-go, meaning that the wait for everybody to pay at a cross-town busstop isn’t really going to be any faster at all.
And I’ll *still* have to carry a Metrocard for when I use other buses. So why would I want to charge to my card when there’s money sitting on my Metrocard waiting to be used up? I know it’s a pilot, but it seems short-sited.
I’d really rather see MTA move to a payment system that was separate from a credit card, in part because not everyone has (or wants) bank debit or credit cards. Especially the poor and undocumented immigrants. DC’s SmartTrip is nice (although it could be smarter, like the Oyster card) and works well across the region.
But NY has some really great payment options — including 7 day, 14 day, monthly and 3 month passes that are incredibly could deals. Rhere are basically no bulk purchase options in DC. And DC has HORRIBLE vending machines. As does SF — which by the way is starting their Translink system that is touch and go with access to the upteen million regional transit systems.
NY’s vending machines are 800x easier to use with an interface that is intuitive and well designed — oddly since MTA’s website pales in comparison to Metro and BART.
Anyway, I think touch and go does speed boarding. (And exciting as both SF and DC require.) But I think a dedicated card is still the way to go. And considerably smarter than a credit card. For instance, it could hold information about your monthly uses, where you transferred from and have more than one account — one for the subway, one for PATH and one for Metro North — or whatever combo you needed.
I’m for it, so long as I can get the same deal/ride as I currently have with my monthly metrocard. Otherwise, I have no problem with the swipe, however long it takes.
Why doesn’t the MTA license something like Boston’s CharlieCard? I know it is not perfect, but after using it every day for the past few years I know it is a whole world apart from MTA’s current options. It is also somewhat tried and true on busses, trains and transfers. This way the MTA doesn’t have to go through its own R&D and it will increase interoperability between the MBTA and MTA, the two largest mass transit agencies in the NE.
[…] with an RFID chip could just tap into the system and speed through the turnstile. That system will soon be expanded to buses and could provide a model for the […]