New York to Replace MetroCard With Modern Way to Pay Transit Fares
He added that card issuers “are going to want to be a part of it” and would add the near-field technology “when they realize
that 5.8 to 6 million people in New York City are getting on the subway every day.”
Mr. Lhota said another potential advantage was that fare readers could be installed near the back doors on buses to “allow for all-door boarding.”
That would let buses pull away from bus stops sooner than they do now, reducing travel times.
New electronic readers will be installed in 500 subway turnstiles
and on 600 buses in New York beginning late next year, and will reach the rest of the city’s subway stations and buses by late 2020.
Starting late next year, they can do it the way Londoners already do, by waving cellphones or certain
kinds of credit or debit cards at the turnstiles in the subway or the fareboxes on buses.
The push to modernize the way fares are paid comes during a disastrous year for the subway system, with delays on every line, rush-hour malfunctions
that have strangled the system, and worse: a train derailed in Manhattan in mid-June, injuring dozens of people and raising concerns over whether the subway was even safe.
