Cards Refilled

Cards Refilled

In 2012, the MTA sold ninety-one million MetroCards; after instituting a one-dollar fee on each new card in 2013, it sold just twenty-six million. By shifting eighty-nine percent of sales to refills, the MTA has saved “$3 million in cardstock and eight cashier positions with the initiative.” This is presumably because these cashiers have been replaced by the hulking machines that refuse to take questions from tourists about which kind of MetroCard to buy, and whether the N train will take them directly from Times Square to part of Brooklyn where they film Girls, you know the real Brooklyn, but the machine, the silent machine with the credit card reader that only works half the time, can only offer refills, not advice. (via)