![\"illustration](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/card-goodbye.jpg\" "\\"Remembering")
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Get ready to bid farewell to the MetroCard, as the MTA announced it will stop selling the cards for fares on Dec. 31 of this year.<\/p>\n
Illustration by Luis Matos<\/p>\n
The MetroCard<\/a>, an iconic piece of plastic utilized by countless New Yorkers to access the city\u2019s mass transit system for just over three decades, meets its demise on Dec. 31 at the age of 32.<\/p>\n The impending death of the flat, rectangular, yellow card with blue lettering comes with the MTA ending its sale on Dec. 31, relegating the MetroCard to the same obsolete status as the metal subway token it replaced in the mid-1990s. The move is part of the agency\u2019s full switch to its tap-and-pay replacement \u2014 OMNY.<\/p>\n Although the MTA will no longer sell MetroCards, it will still accept them for some time next year.\n<\/p>\n When announcing the MetroCard\u2019s impending demise<\/a> earlier this year, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said that \u201cAfter 32 years, it\u2019s time to say goodbye to the MetroCard and go all in on the fare payment system of the future (OMNY).\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTap-and-go\u2026is not only easier and more convenient to use, it also opens the door for new discounts and promotions that\u2019ll put money back in riders\u2019 pockets,\u201d he added. Jodi Shapiro, a curator at the New York Transit Museum, which is currently running an\u00a0exhibit bidding \u201cFAREwell\u201d to the MetroCard,<\/a> told amNewYork she believes New Yorkers are already mourning.<\/p>\n \u201cI think people are kind of sad it\u2019s going away,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThe same thing happened with tokens. People\u2026until the very last minute that they could use them, they used them. There\u2019s definitely people like that with MetroCards.\u201d<\/p>\n Over three billion MetroCards have been encoded since they first came into the transit system in 1994, according to the MTA.\n<\/p>\n MetroCards were conceived as a replacement for the cumbersome tokens that had been in use since 1953<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shapiro said the idea for the MetroCard was born in 1983 when then-MTA Chair Richard Ravitch pushed for the agency to replace tokens with fare cards that feature a magnetized stripe \u2014 known as \u201cstored-value magstripe cards.\u201d<\/p>\n Ravitch saw the cards\u2019 introduction as a way to update much of the technology throughout the city\u2019s transit system \u2014 a process that ultimately took over a decade.\n<\/p>\n The MetroCard was introduced alongside new, compatible turnstiles, using \u201cautomatic fare collection\u201d (AFC) technology, Shapiro said. The card was introduced at an increasing number of stations as the turnstiles were replaced, an effort that the MTA completed in 1995.<\/p>\n The transit agency also installed MetroCard-reading fare boxes aboard the city\u2019s bus fleet. At the same time, the MTA launched a massive ad campaign to teach riders about the MetroCard, Shapiro said \u2014 and, in particular, how to swipe.<\/p>\n \u201cAt that time, since not many systems in the United States used a magstripe stored-value card as a fare card\u2026 this was really a behavior that needed to be taught to people in New York,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cEspecially on the subway, because swiping a card is much different than dropping a token into a turnstile.\u201d<\/p>\n The MetroCard also made it possible for transit riders to transfer between the subway and the bus during the same trip without incurring a second fare. With the introduction of MetroCard Gold in 1997, the MTA allowed riders to transfer multiple times in the same trip instead of just once.<\/p>\n Furthermore, MetroCard Gold made it possible for riders to purchase seven and 30-day unlimited passes. The change was enabled by a technological advancement in the improved card.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe real technological change was a different way of encoding the metal kinetic stripe so that it would allow multiple transfers, and also give the card the ability to have seven or 30-day unlimited modes, and offer discounts for people who would just put money on the card and use as they go,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n The MetroCard and popular culture<\/p>\n Over the years, the ability to swipe a MetroCard has become an integral part of people\u2019s culture.\n<\/p>\n One notable moment for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton\u2019s ill-fated 2016 presidential campaign was when she had to swipe her MetroCard five times<\/a> in order to gain entry into a Bronx subway station.<\/p>\n \u201cTwin Peaks\u201d star Kyle MacLachlan was similarly caught on video<\/a> trying and failing multiple times to get into the subway \u2014 a scene featured in a 2020 episode of the HBO show \u201cHow To with John Wilson.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/metrocard-prop-102425-mta.jpg\" "\\"Remembering")
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber peeks through a giant MetroCard.Photo by Marc A. Hermann \/ MTA\n<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/52083681455_6e72258f28_k.jpg\" "\\"Remembering")
The MTA sold Biggie Smalls MetroCards on the occasion of the late rapper\u2019s 50th birthday.Marc A. Hermann \/ MTA\n<\/p>\n