Thank you for your reply Mr. Ike. I realized the fare would have an increase. But, still that is a lot of fun/entertainment for $2.75.
From the photos above, it looks like a good business. With great cash flow.
I hope they keep it running. I’d like to re-visit.
Ah, yes. I was in NY 1993-98 so I started with the bullseye, and then changed to the wee silver one, and then to the Metrocard. The M/C was a lot more convenient on the bus.
http://untappedcities.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tokens-640.jpg
You get an 11% bonus every time you fill or re-fill your card, so it’s really about $2.48.
The average fare for unlimited cards is actually lower than that, if you take more than ten trips a week. I usually take 16-18 trips a week so my monthly unlimited for $116.50 averages out to $1.60 or $1.80 per trip.
ETA: Another pro-tip: You can have unlimited and pay-per-ride on the same card. If your unlimited time expires it will use the pay-per-ride balance. This is great for using other systems that take only pay-per-ride Metrocards (PATH, Express Buses, or JFK AirTrain in my case.) It’s also great if you want to share cards - unlimited rides will only let you swipe once every 10 minutes or so. By using both you can get one unlimited swipe and then pass the card back to your companion for a pay-per-ride swipe.
I was told there would be NO MATH.
I visited NYC for the first time last year, staying for a week. I took the subway multiple times a day; it’s a great way to get around Manhattan. I agree with most of the things on here. The only thing I would add is the advice to use Google Maps, if you don’t already. It was the only tool I used, and it got me all over the island on different lines with very little trouble.
If a crowded train rolls into the station, and one of the cars is empty, it is not because you hit the jackpot and scored a private train car. Something is seriously wrong in that car. In summer, it usually means that the AC is out and the car is roughly 245 degrees. But, it could also be a poo smeared homeless guy.
Other than that, it is the thing that I miss most since moving out of NYC ten years ago.
It’s waaaaay more reliable than the Washington Metro, that’s for sure.
I used to ride the subway in Manhattan regularly in the late '60s-early '70s between South Ferry and the Times Square area. In the beginning graffiti was just getting started (the legendary Taki 183) and there were incredible vintage subway cars on the BMT line that looked something like this (note the overhead fans and bare light bulbs).
The ones I remember fondly looked even more ancient and were dimly lit, with wicker seats. I was into Dos Passos novels at the time, and the atmosphere on the BMT when you rode in one of these cars was straight out of the 1920s.
*at that time you could also ride the Knickerbocker, a Staten Island ferry that was commissioned in 1932.
I never felt in danger on the N.Y. subway, except maybe once at night when I wasn’t paying attention and rode past my stop into some godforsaken part of Queens. When I got off, the station was empty and spookily quiet, except for the sound of dripping (water? blood?). I felt a lot better once I was on another train heading back towards civilization.
Leaky water pipes get fixed really fast; you know what a drip does to your water bill in this city?
What you were hearing was definitely blood.
Also, the man in the middle was dead.
A CHUD’s gotta do what a CHUD’s gotta do.
Dude, Metrocard math is basically a national pastime in this town. Every time there’s a fare hike, everyone spends the preceding weekend calculating what odd cash amount plus bonus is evenly-divisible by one fare.
And never mind visitors trying to figure out how to not leave their money with MTA upon leaving town (and remember the $5 for the AirTrain if needed) or if they’ll be able to keep track of the Metrocard so they may use it again if they travel back within the year.
I miss the days of tokens. 1 token = 1 fare. End of story.
^ So does one swipe now. I’d much rather carry around a Metro Card them tokens.
If you don’t use the MTA much, the machine you get the card from will do the math for you so no money is wasted.
You’re lucky to have even that. The Chicago system has no bathrooms for customers. So the elevator floors are almost always covered with piss.
We get them in Philadelphia too. I usually see them on weekends, probably because on weekdays I ride the subway at around 6:30 AM and it’s not crowded enough to be attractive to whichever panhandlers are awake at that hour.
I once saw an elderly woman stop a worker who was putting up a rodenticide poster and was very emphatic in wanting to know exactly what rodenticide was being used. When the worker asked her why she wanted to know, she snapped “So I know what not to use, as it obviously doesn’t work!”
