The Bounty of Expired Metrocards

The MTA says there's gold, or at least green, in those used Metrocards: Millions of dollars on expired Metrocards with values of less than a full fare have been tossed because owners haven't realized they can transfer the balance to a new card. The MTA's financial reports list money from "forfeited fares," which was over $20 million last year. Newsday called the MTA's policy where you can mail in your expired Metrocard to the MTA to be transferred to a new one "little-known," perhaps in hopes to rile people up, but the Straphangers' Gene Russianoff suspects forfeited fares mostly generated by tourists. He adds, "I have a typical New York attitude toward tourists: They're on the their own. The more they help the system out the better, and I don't stay up late at night worrying about them." Seriously: Gothamist was slightly confused by this story, because the first time we read it, we thought people didn't realize they could add money to non-expired cards, which made us think other people out there were idiots. The only New Yorkers we could imagine forfeiting fares on expired cards are the people who let "emergency" cards in their wallets go unused for a while.

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By Jen Chung in News on May 27, 2005 8:14 AM

Comments [rss]

charles

I've had cards expire after reloading them over and over without paying attention to the expiration date. I didn't know that I could transfer the balance on an expired card for a new one, but asked before I threw the old card away.

poor grad student

Expired card with money still on it? Didn't know that was possible. I have the exact opposite problem.

Kojak

True. Speaking from experience, compared to a lot of the world's subway systems, Ours just might be the Shittiest. But then i havent been to Mexico yet...

The way it is

Trust me--a lot of tourists aren't exactly enamored of the NYC subway as a source of transportation. I remember once overhearing a couple of tourists on a crowded, dirty train who were making comparisons of the NYC subway with travel in the third world.

Kojak

Frank Frank Frank . . .

Don't let those little wussy tourists get you down. If they are in your way on the wrong side of the stairs taking their sweet time, you have to learn to push them out of the way and curse a lot while your doing it.

And I agree to some extent with jacking up the fare, but I'd rather bar tourists from using the subway, period. They can walk to their destinations or take the cab, not hold us up on the train.

As for those pesky metrocards with money left on them. WhO CaReS? I have an Unlimited! Weeeeeeee

Why does the MTA care anyway if people left money on their metrocards? Once you pay for the card, the MTA already cashes in. They love it when fares go unused.

In no hurry

Hey, I'm telling 'ya, there's money on them there cards.

Whenever I need to check the balance on my metrocard on that MTA machine, it seems like I'm always stuck behind the subway cleaner guy who is swiping the dozens of metrocards he's found in the subway.

Ed

Do we look rich? 10 bucks for a fun pass, with your mentality the MTA is going to have another fare hike because no one will be purchasing the card.

Frank Gorshin

The MTA should raise the One Day Fun Pass to 10 dollars and include a brouchure for the tourists including do not get to the stop of the stairs, and stop to figure out, where Macy's is at 34th St. The city really should educate tourists on how to walk sidewalks and how to enter and exit the subway. with the re-surgance of tourists in NYC, they should be forced to pay as much as possible, we shouldn't be paying for them