Gothamist: Metrocard Vending Machines Now Working...Maybe

mtauser

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:01:38 -0500

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

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:57:00 -0500

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

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:12:09 -0500

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

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:11:47 -0500

Hahahah. Well put, Jen

mtauser

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:19:35 -0500

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

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:14:54 -0500

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

spnder

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:04:23 -0500

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

edEx

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:55:51 -0500

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.

holla

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:48:50 -0500

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