Everyone I knew was excited about not paying two fares anymore. Probably the last time the MTA ever got city-wide praise.

Wasn't there another Metrocard? I seem to remember another color, blue or something which came out before the gold one. What was the difference? Did the other just work on buses or something? Anyone?

There was a blue metrocard. I frankly don't remember what the difference was... I definitely had one and never took the bus then so I am guessing it only worked on subways OR on buses, but not both (i.e. you couldn't transfer).

I remember the first (blue) MetroCard being introduced just as an alternative for tokens. No bus/subway transfer. Very few people adopted the blue MetroCard. In hindsight, MetroCard Blue was a "beta version" of MetroCard Gold.

ok yeah, so pretty much what i guessed.

Here's kind of a interesting factoid. You know how usually you can never make a subway to subway transfer? at 59th street and 63rd street and lexington stations, you can do this... it doesn't matter which station you last got out of, if you've been out of the system for less than 2 hours since you swiped, it will let you back on as a free transfer but ONLY at those stations.

For example, you take the train to 59th and lex, buy some crap at Bloomingdales. You can transfer back onto any the train at 59th and lex or at 63rd and lex within 2 hours and save 1 fare. Pretty cool right.

Interesting. I always wondered what kind of time frame the "out-of-system" transfer between those two stations allowed.

At the time I was pissed off as if you lose one token = no big deal. Lose a card = f*cked.

I still prefer the tokens, but maybe that's because I grew up with them. Turns out they were less wasteful too.

That sounds like Mandy Patinkin narrating.

I was one of the people who tested the MetroCard before it came out. I was walking into the 6 train at City Hall and someone official-looking with a clipboard stopped and asked me how often I ride and if I wanted to help test a new card. There were only a few stations taking them and City Hall was one of them. They gave me a card, which was made of laminated paper, good for two weeks' worth of fares. I had to fill out a questionnaire at the end of two weeks and they gave me a TransitChek for $20 when it was over. I recall that one of my concerns was that the paper would be too flimsy and easily bent over time, especially getting tossed around in my bag.

Now I feel guilty about that feedback, with all the plastic MetroCards that people just casually throw away - I hope they come up with a way to recycle them.

Tokens were cool-looking, though. I also remember the paper transfers we used to use on the buses. The driver had to tear them off at the hour mark for when he gave it to you, and I think you had 24 hours to use them. You couldn't use them in the subways un;ess you got a special one.

And now, after sinking millions into the metrocard system, they want to replace it with an unnecessary smart card system. Because Walder wants the subway to look exactly like the Tube!