MTA Cuts MetroCard Machine Upgrades To Single Night After Outrage

NEW YORK, NY — Only night owls will have to pay cash. MetroCard vending machines in the subway system will not take credit or debit cards during a software upgrade just from midnight to 6 a.m. Saturday, rather than a whole weekend, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Monday.

A two-day outage planned for this past weekend outraged commuters when the MTA announced it with just two days' notice last week. The agency reneged after straphangers complained it made little sense to go cash-only for so long at a time when many people renew their $121 monthly MetroCards.

The upgrade aims to make credit and debit card purchases more secure on the machines, which process about 800,000 transactions a day, the MTA said. Workers will do the update from a central mainframe computer over six hours — less than an eighth of the previously planned 53-hour outage.

"After hearing clearly from our customers that they needed more information regarding this upgrade, we reassessed the entire process," Veronique Hakim, the MTA's managing director, said in a statement Monday. "We are aggressively communicating with customers about this upgrade to ensure that we avoid confusion, and limiting the disruption to only the very early morning hours Saturday."

Subway traffic is lightest in the early-morning hours, meaning the "vast majority" of New Yorkers will be spared the inconvenience, the MTA says. Workers will also be in subway stations to help riders and accommodate those without cash, the agency said.

Soon enough, straphangers won't have to deal with the finicky machines at all. The MTA plans to roll out new technology next year allowing riders to pay fares and reload cards with their cellphones. The MetroCard will be thing of the past by 2023.

(Lead image: A man buys a MetroCard at Union Square in Manhattan in 2009. Photo by Mary Altaffer/Associated Press)