Bonus Subway Trivia

As a coda to this week’s look at the construction of the original IRT subway, a view of the ticket booth at the City Hall Station:

Working our way backwards in time on the history of payment in the subway: the new OMNY contactless system will be the only option for payment as of the end of this year, when MetroCard use is discontinued. MetroCards were introduced in 1993 as an alternate to carrying tokens (MTA-issued coins), and token use ended in 2003. Tokens had been introduced in 1953, replacing the use of regular coins, because the fare increase to 15 cents meant that the previous use of coins (nickels and then dimes) in turnstiles was no longer possible. The use of nickel-operated turnstiles began in 1921, replacing a system where you bought a paper ticket and had it validated by a person at the gate to the train area. The sheer volume of riders and the never-ending search for cost-cutting by the subway companies doomed the ticket-taker role in favor of automated turnstiles.

So: 17 years with tickets, 32 years with coins, 50 years with tokens, and 32 years with MetroCard. OMNY was first used in 2019, so I figure sometime around 2050 we’ll see its replacement.

If you want to see a ticket booth, there’s one, abandoned and lovingly-restored, on the downtown side of the Wall Street station on the 4 and 5 IRT.