A person swipes a MetroCard at a subway station in New York.
Photographer: Bilgin S. Sasmaz/Anadolu/Getty ImagesNYC Subway Says Goodbye to MetroCard, But Many Riders Already Did
The agency that runs the city’s transportation network is switching to its popular tap-and-go system
The MetroCard — a blue-and-yellow pass that for more than three decades let riders into New York’s vast subway network with a swipe — will be retired on Wednesday, replaced by the already popular tap-and-go payment system.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority introduced the MetroCard in 1994, bringing what was then modern, magnetic-strip technology to turnstiles that had previously allowed passengers to enter by dropping coin-like tokens that dated back to the 1950s. Prior to that, the subway accepted coins, beginning with a nickel when the system first opened at the turn of the 20th century.