In response to a recent story by the NY Daily News in which it was reported that the MTA had permanently ended cash transactions at subway booths, having temporarily implemented the measure amid the pandemic in efforts to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, a torrent of criticism was unleashed towards the MTA on social media, with many, including local Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernández (A.D. 80), and recent candidate for Bronx borough president, blasting the decision, categorizing it as discriminatory.

 

“We are judged as a society by how we treat our most vulnerable,” the assemblywoman wrote. “This decision is discriminatory against unbanked New Yorkers who utilize our public transit system everyday. @MTA should be making it easier for NYers to use the subway, not more difficult.”

 

Meanwhile, local resident and executive director of Friends of Mosholu Parkland, Elizabeth Quaranta, said, “This is a change but it would work better if the vending machines offered all kinds of passes, and they weren’t broken so much.” She added, “I have visited other countries with public systems and they don’t have cash transactions or anyone minding a booth – no booths. I’ve seen seniors, students, wheelchair access vending and it works great. They also had more cameras btw. This is just an adjustment that needs to take its course.”

 

Another resident, Larry Mauriello, wrote on social media, “So, is there anything our electeds can do to try getting MTA to change it?” while Grace Lovag, another resident, wrote, “Thank you Nathalia! I was going to call your office about this because as a senior, I buy the reduced fare at the booths.”

 

She continued, “Without that, I am being denied access to PUBLIC transportation, something the MTA seems to have forgotten. Public funds should be taken away from the MTA & put towards alternative companies that will actually service the public!”

 

Norwood News reached out to the MTA for comment and received the following statement from the acting MTA chief communications officer, Tim Minton.

 

“To be clear, no decision has been made and no decision was announced yesterday regarding cash returning to station booths,” he said. “The MTA continues to review logistics and other considerations associated with accepting cash payments at subway station booths post-pandemic.”

 

Minton continued, “In the meantime, we still accept cash throughout the subway system and across the city. Currently customers can use cash to purchase MetroCards at:

• every subway station in the system, at 1,688 MetroCard Vending Machines;
• MetroCard Mobile Vans that travel across the city, including to areas without subway stations and that also replace damaged MetroCards;
• 1,470 select merchants and convenience stores at airports and throughout the city that do not charge a fee for new MetroCards.”

 

Minton also said residents can continue to exchange expired MetroCards at no charge at any MetroCard Vending Machine for a valid new card.

 

The MTA also told the Norwood News that, since March 2020, damaged MetroCards can be replaced either by mail or by presenting them to the MetroCard Service Center located at 3 Stone Street in Lower Manhattan.

 

The agency added that Reduced Fare MetroCard holders, including senior citizens, also have the ability to perform certain non-cash transactions at thirteen locations located in all five boroughs.

 

MTA officials said the agency was committed to providing widespread and simple access to fare payment systems through 2023, consistent with protocols put in place during the global pandemic to protect the safety and health of transit workers. “As we deliberately review future customer access to all forms of payment, we will continue to make the safety of our employees a top priority,” the statement read.

 

In March 2021, the NY Daily News reported that the agency reported the first death of one of its employees a year earlier and that since then, as COVID-19 ravaged the agency, at least 156 transit workers have died from the disease.

 

In response to this story, Norwood News was contacted by an MTA employee who asked us not to share their name or position.

 

They said that the MTA’s stance that it has discontinued cash MetroCard transactions in subway booths for the health and safety of employees is “an outright falsehood.” The employee acknowledges that, at first, that may have been the reason, but that the MTA and everyone else found out long ago that circulation of the virus in the air was much more deadly in terms of transmission, (hence the later focus on mask wearing) than surface/object-to-person virus transmission, which has been found in the meantime to not be of real concern finally.

 

The employee said they believe the MTA’s motivation is actually to accelerate the implementation of OMNY, the electronic type MetroCards used at some subway stiles, “probably in hopes of getting rid of booths and employees altogether.”

 

They said that a lot of MTA passengers have consistently said they wanted to use cash at the booths throughout the pandemic and that many were immigrants. They said OMNY doesn’t let them use unlimited weeklies and monthlies, and they may not have credit cards, or bank accounts or cell phones in order to use the OMNY electronic payment system.

 

The employee added that the old vending machines have always been “horrible, often out of order, taking customers’ money and MetroCards.” They added that it’s been extremely stressful for employees / clerks to deal with the situation daily, and they end up having to let a lot of people in for free, adding that some just go in without their permission as they can’t stop them, and that the MTA is bleeding money as a result.

 

They asked if the MTA’s loss of funding will be used as an excuse to lay off workers again. We reached out to the MTA for comment.

 

Ken Lovett, senior advisor to the MTA chairman and CEO, said, “There will always be options to use cash for purchase of MTA travel via our MetroCard vending machines, our OMNY machines, 1,470 retail outlets across the city, as well as our mobile vans. Although no final determination has been made about bringing cash transactions back to our station booths, we plan to make that decision in coordination with our labor partners.”

 

The agency also told us that anytime the MVM machines are not working and do not/will not accept cash, it is MTA policy for station agents to allow customers into the system via the emergency gates.

 

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz also weighed in on the subject saying cash may be falling out of fashion, but is still a form of legal U.S. currency that many New Yorkers rely on for their purchases. “I am very disturbed by the continued MTA recalcitrance to restore cash transactions at the station booths, although my office has been told by MTA officials that cash transactions may still return to station booths as we get further though the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

 

“I understand that many transit users will soon be, or already are, using mobile phone apps and contactless credit cards to pay for their transit fare. Not everybody has access to banking services or credit cards that are required for cashless transactions, and some people simply prefer to use cash,” he added. “Furthermore, the MetroCard vending machines at subway stations are not exactly the epitome of well-maintained machines – often indicating that they do not accept cash at various times. Mass transit needs to be for everyone – even if they use cash.”

 

The assemblyman said he was pleased nonetheless that MTA MetroCard vans had resumed cash transactions as of June 21, 2021. “This is something that I have been advocating for as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is an important service for residents of the North and Northwest Bronx who do not live near subway stations and often rely on the bus to get around,” he said. “It is critical that as the MTA continue modernizing our transit system that we maintain peoples’ right to use cash to purchase MetroCard fares. I will continue advocating for cash users in our transit system.”

 

Meanwhile, the MTA also announced on Monday that the New York City Subway and Long Island Rail Road had once more broken pandemic-era ridership records for the second consecutive week.

 

The subway (including the Staten Island Railway) carried 2,585,965 customers on Friday, June 25, the highest ridership since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The figure surpasses the previous record set a week earlier of 2,576,275 subway + SIR trips on Friday, June 18.

 

The Long Island Rail Road also broke a record on Friday, June 25, carrying 126,722 customers, the highest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and surpassing the previous record, set Monday, June 21, of 123,918.

 

Combined subway and bus ridership of 3.76 million is 50% of pre-pandemic levels.

Other current pandemic-era records stand at 1,287,637 riders on New York City buses on Wednesday, June 16; 989,296 vehicles carried on MTA Bridges and Tunnels on Friday, June 18; 104,304 Metro-North customers carried on Friday, June 18; and 24,788 trip reservations made on Access-A-Ride on Wednesday, June 16.

 

The MTA wrote that it has undertaken unprecedented cleaning and disinfecting protocols in the year since the pandemic began to ensure that the system is as safe as possible for its customers. Officials wrote that the agency has also rolled out robust public education campaigns and issued millions of masks to its customers. The MTA is hosting public vaccination hubs at Grand Central and Penn Station.

 

Prior to the pandemic, average weekday ridership totals routinely exceeded 5.5 million in the subway system. That figure fell by 95% to a low of roughly 300,000 daily trips last April as the number of COVID-19 cases peaked in the New York City area. Agency officials wrote that MTA employees continued to provide service for the frontline healthcare professionals and other essential workers who needed to get to work during some of the most difficult days in New York City history.