New York’s MTA Screwed Over 10,000 Monthly Pass Riders
Here in Boston, our public transportation system is basically a defective starfish that requires you go all the way into the city before you can go back out to where you need to be. It’s inefficient and everyone knows it, but at least our monthly passes work.
Down in The Big Apple, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority cannot say the same thing. Yesterday, about 10,000 commuters got slapped with a maddening “insufficient fare’’ message when they used their monthly passes to hop on the subway or a bus, CBS New York reported.
According to the report, the “glitch’’ was attributed to a coding error on dual monthly passes that act as both a MetroCard for the subways and buses, and as a monthly ticket for either the Long Island Rail Road or Metro-North. The error meant that people could ride the train into the city, but once they got there, they couldn’t get very far because the MetroCard side of the passes didn’t work.
The result was a scramble to get a functioning replacement pass before supplies ran out. Passengers who couldn’t get one had to show their now-useless passes to a bus driver or subway attendant in order to ride on Monday. For Tuesday and beyond, they would have to buy new passes (with a refund for their old one, of course).
All in all, that’s one hell of a way to start the week. Sure, the Green Line is a regular nightmare, but at least we can actually get on it. This nonsense from the MTA will make us hold in our complaints about the T…for now.
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