A Brooklyn man is turning a tiny portion of the $52 million in unused MetroCards into cash. In a business model akin to the OTB truffle-sniffers of yore, 41-year-old John Jones finds discarded MetroCards on the ground in various subway stations, combines the fares onto new cards, and resells them at a discount, and estimates that he's made around $20,000 over the years. "I'm surprised that people just toss money away," Jones tells the Post. This past holiday season, he found $1,500 worth of unused fares, and was able to sell half of it. No machine-tampering necessary! more ›

Victory for the Mom & Pop MetroCard businesses that have been sprouting up across the city! A New York Court of Appeals judge ruled that charging passengers less than the fare for a subway ride, then swiping them in on an unlimited MetroCard, is not larceny. Justice Jonathan Lippman wrote in his opinion that the MTA "never acquired a sufficient interest in the money to become an 'owner,' " which is necessary when pursuing a case of petit larceny. Sort of like how that guy strumming "Wonderwall" for 40 minutes straight in the subway station technically stole our heart, but really it belonged to the B-boys on the R train all along. more ›

Can't the NYPD give small businesses a break? A man who devised a brilliant revenue strategy to reallocate the funds of subway riders was arrested last week in the Cortland Street R station. DNAinfo reports that 52-year-old Darrelle Lawrence shoved cardboard into the MetroCard fare machine and told straphangers that he could swipe them into the stop for just $2 cash. That's a .25 discount (.50 if you're a single ride!), enough to keep Foghat on the speakers for an extra four minutes. But instead of rounding up angel investors, the NYPD charged him with petit larceny, theft of services and criminal trespass. more ›

It's almost time to kiss those de-magnetizing flimsy excuses for transit currency goodbye. The MTA is planning on phasing out MetroCards and replacing them with sturdier, microchip-implanted "MTA Cards," says the Daily News. On Tuesday, the agency will release a "140 page roadmap" of the future to technology-related companies in the hopes that one of them will create what the MTA's CFO calls "E-ZPass for transit." more ›

Don't get too used to paying $104 for your 30-day unlimited MetroCard. The MTA is already aiming to raise fares again in 2013 (possibly dwarfing the last hike) and Streetsblog points out that a report from the State's Comptrollers office [PDF] paints a scary picture in which things could get much worse. more ›

MetroCards: the $104 canvas. Another artist has set out to recreate the little, yellow, different pieces of plastic, turning them in to bird's nests, brooms and even self portraits. Subway Art Blog points to cardist Thomas McKean, who says, "we barely notice them; they’re as omnipresent and invisible as pigeons. I stopped to look at them one day and haven’t looked back yet. In their limited palette, I’ve found an expanding world of images, colors, ideas. Mosaics, collages, portraits, abstracts, constructions, dioramas, combination drawing and collages, all these keep pouring forth from this little object, not much bigger than two by three inches." He collects the cards all over town, and says, "Perhaps because I’m from New York, and this is my world, without setting out to, I’m creating a world from one of its iconic symbols.” more ›

If you thought you could postpone the pain of the subway and bus fare hikes starting in January by stockpiling unlimited MetroCards at their current prices, the MTA knows what you're up to. To undermine your scheme, they're setting grace periods for each type of unlimited MetroCard, and when that grace expires, software at subway turnstiles and bus fareboxes will firmly reject you. Those dastardly Transit Authoritarians have thought of everything! Here's how it breaks down for MetroCards purchased before December 30th: more ›

Apple strategically funded an overhaul of a dilapidated Chicago subway station to the tune of $4 million recently, exposing what seems like a possible solution to the MTA's fare-raising financial indigence. The Chicago station's neighborhood is home to a newly opened Apple store. Seeking similar corporate collaborations could, as Second Avenue Sagas noted, do wonders for the transit system here in NYC. more ›

At a protest held Tuesday morning on the Upper West Side, more community advocates, high schoolers, and local politicians, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, rallied against the MTA's plans to cut free student Metrocards. The event at Martin Luther King Jr. High School followed similar protests this past weekend in Harlem, and came on the heels of the passing of the MTA's "doomsday" budget, which included the phasing-out of the free Metrocard program, which will affect more than 500,000 students. more ›

Is leftover change on your Metrocard bumming you out? It's bumming everyone out, according to the Daily News today. Ever since the MTA changed how it formulated the bonuses on pay-per-ride cards, from 20% (buy five trips, get a sixth for free) to 15%, New Yorkers have been accumulating Metrocards with unusable spare change on them, while the MTA has been absorbing that decent chunk of unused change! more ›

We have to thank WCBS 2 for reminding us of what we know already: sometimes when you swipe your Metrocard and it says "Swipe Again At This Turnstile," it has already deducted a fare, though the turnstile will not let you through. And that hurts, especially after turnstile groin and/or torso injuries. Not to mention the fact that they just took your money. more ›

When one Upper East Side subway station was not prepared for the final transition over to the newly-priced unlimited Metrocards post-fare hike, straphangers freaked the fudge out. The Post describes the scene at the 86th Street station for the 4, 5, 6 where commuters were "banging the station agent booth window, crying, and forming lines that were 30-people deep at the card vending machines — until one broke down." Since yesterday was the end of the grace period for monthly cards purchased at the pre-fare hike rates, many were forced to exchange their $81 cards when they wouldn't swipe. The station had a mere 50 pre-paid envelopes to give to riders to mail their not fully-used MetroCards back to the MTA for a pro-rated reimbursement that were quickly snatched up, adding to the chaos. The Post says there wasn't even a sign up letting riders know that their old cards wouldn't work. While a NYCT spokesman has already apologized to riders, one commuter told the paper, "I'm hot, frustrated, and they should have honored the old cards. This is bull." No word on if he was crying while quoted. more ›

Keep those quarters handy. Starting at midnight Sunday, the base fare on New York City subways and buses is going up for the first time since 2003—from $2.00 to $2.25. Unlimiteds are also rising in price across the board, with monthly Metrocards going from $81 to $89. If you're on a weekly card or have a longer one about to expire, you might want to make a trip to your nearest subway station this evening to pick a card up the old rates. But don't think about stockpiling them—the grace period to use start using cards purchased at the old rate is Monday July 6th. Funny that the fare hikes have fallen so close to Independence Day without using the holiday for the changeover. Fourth of July was the date that both the free transfer from subways to buses (and vice-versa) debuted and unlimited Metrocards were introduced, in 1997 and 1998 respectively. Signs of this most recent change have been appearing underground this week—sometimes as seen here in as many as five languages at once. more ›

Since it's unclear whether the State Legislature will make a deal to help out the MTA (they claim to want to, but there's no agreement on a plan), the MTA has no choice but to tell commuters what to expect with their unlimited Metrocards as "doomsday," May 31—the day fares go up about 25%— approaches. more ›

"Uncompensated" MTA board members are not the only ones benefiting from a policy of free E-ZPasses. As the board found it necessary to pass toll and fare hikes to regular commuters, it made sure that not only were they insulated from the cost of traveling around NYC, but their wives were as well. One member even gave his girlfriend an all-inclusive Metro-North rail pass. The value of these perks is in the thousands of dollars annually for each individual. more ›