Metrocard Vending Machines Now Working...Maybe

While NYC Transit says the problems with Metrocard vending machines have been solved, apparently some stations' machines are still touch-and-go. But whether that's related to the systemwide issue or just par-for-the-course Metrocard vending machine, we'll never know. The clerk at the 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue line told the Daily News that "major, systemwide failures hit about once a month - and that on a regular basis, at least half of the machines in her station are out of commission several times a week." Yeah, that sounds about right.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on July 31, 2008 11:41 AM

Comments [rss]

mtauser

Whenever you go through mass transit there is always a track of everything you do. Don't think that by swapping that ticket it doesn't go into a database somewhere cause it does in the era of post 9/11 or that machines throughout the system cant be shutdown at will by MTA or hacked by outside to do this.

Lots of things buzzing around you 24/7 and some things humans won't even be aware of.

mtauser

According to MTA website it seemed to indicate it was a full system outage. There is no way to know.

53rd and lexington is the E, V, and 6. I did not check the machines in my area. All I saw was the advisory posting on the website.

I wonder if machines could have been controlled to allow only certain traffic to pass through the system.

nicemarmot

That's odd, 53rd & Lex is my home station and I've never had any difficulties with the machines there, even last Monday when they were supposedly broken.

Jesq

Hahahah. Well put, Jen

mtauser

It was weird. I was doing something and had to go out. The next thing I know I go to MTA website and theres an advisory that the machines went down for debit and credit.

What was weird was that the posting dates for advisories had previously been static based. The advisory for the outage this time seemed to have been dynamic and posting date changed each time I went to the browser to refresh.

It seemed like the outage was larger than normal, and the truth is its hard to tell if shutdowns are due to random or intentional shutdowns without appropriate investigative journalism. The NY Times did cover this story.

I will say this: Before 9/11, there were ATM shutdowns at the banks and sometimes its hard to know if its due to antiterrorism procedures, hacking and malfeasance or just a systemwide failure.

Humans are dependent upon other flawed humans so outages will always happen. The thing is the nature of this outage seemed suspect in some ways.

pelham123

They're still better than the Charlie Card shit-boxes in Boston.

spnder

Wow, the whole subday system seems to be headed right into the crapper...

ed_Extinct

ok so how do I get back the $40 the MTA stole from me?

if you used a credit or debit card, call your bank's fraud dept and they will reimburse you immediately. they will then do an investigation into the matter.