Most of us still call them "token booths," so it's not too surprising that the workers inside can't help much with the newfangled MetroCards. Reporters for the Daily News approached three different token booth sseeking help with a defective MetroCard, and each time found MTA employees unable to help. Three's a trend! The tabloid also spoke with an unidentified Manhattan man who says he went to "six to 10 different booths" when a MetroCard he bought for his daughter failed. And not one of the clerks inside those booths could help in, or even offer a preaddressed, postage-paid envelope to mail in a request for a replacement MetroCard or refund. more ›

An avuncular MTA employee who was caught on camera sleeping inside the token booth at the City Hall R station has put in his request for retirement. The unidentified worker, whom we'll just call Sleepy, got in trouble earlier this month when NY1 obtained a photo of him with his face down in the booth. In an interview, Sleepy claimed he wasn't napping, just bent over to closely inspect the money, because, "I always check money and everything else and look at it carefully. Because I've found errors in the money, there are, slightly misprints, what do you call. In fact, I've shown clerks the same, what I've found." more ›

Yesterday, a judge ordered the MTA to reopen 38 token booths closed as part of the agency's cost-cutting measures. This ruling from Justice Saliann Scarpulla comes a week after her earlier one finding that the MTA's layoffs and booth closings were illegal because they occurred without public hearings. more ›

Adding to yesterday's report that fare beaters in the city's subway system have been vastly undercounted, the News wrote today that cops have gone soft on the crime. Only about 87,000 turnstile hoppers and emergency gate crashers were ticketed or arrested in 2009, the lowest number in five years. The police explain the drop, saying they're cracking down on big-time perpetrators, in lieu of handing out lots of little fines. "The department focused on the arrest of more serious offenders," said Sgt. Carlos Nieves, not explaining what constitutes a "serious offender." more ›

Just as it prepares to fire hundreds of subway booth agents, the MTA has announced new high figures for turnstile-jumping and fare flouting by other means. Commuters who ride without MetroCards cost the transit system about $27 million last year, according to the Daily News, up from a previous calculation of $7 million. "The MTA's only going to make jumping the turnstile more inviting by slashing scores of clerks from subway station entrances," Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign warned, but the MTA says the big statistical jump is misleading. more ›

Subway managers on the No. 4 line have enlisted college interns to pose as subway riders and grade token booth clerks on their courtesy levels. It's unclear why the study, which was called "Operation Courtesy," was restricted to the 4 line, but NYC Transit spokesman Charles Seaton says, "It's like a mystery shopper program," in which storeowners' send fake shoppers to review staff. It's also unclear why the MTA needs to conduct an undercover sting to verify that workers can be gruff. But to be fair, we've found many of booth clerks to be exceptionally pleasant, considering they spend their days underground in a tiny box. more ›