The MTA's Token Mistake

Along with the tokens?it just follows?the MTA is also planning to phase out the token clerks as well. The MTA is figuring that we'll all get along just fine with vending machines and MetroCards. After all, they argue, only 10 percent of us still use tokens as it is.

Thing is, though, some of us who still use tokens do so for reasons that have nothing at all to do with history or iconography.

I'll use myself as an example here. My eyes are very poor. As a result of this condition, I cannot read LCD screens and find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to use vending machines (especially the touch-screen variety employed by the MTA). And given that my vision is growing worse, these activities will become more out of reach for me in the future.

With tokens, I always knew how many rides I had left, and could easily stop by a token booth when I needed more. At the turnstiles, I can feel my way to the token slot, and there you are?I didn't have to worry about which side was up or down, or facing this way or that in order to make them work. Plus, given that tokens actually do work 99.9 percent of the time, there was rarely any trouble at all.

In short, without tokens, I was fucked. And more than fucked, I was pissed.

Now, it may be argued that certain other members of the "blind community" and people with other disabilities can simply use the door next to the turnstiles. That's all fine and good, too?except for the fact that you need someone in the token booth to activate that door. Reserving certain seats on the trains for the crippled and the enfeebled is a noble idea?but what good are they if we can't get past the turnstiles to begin with?

I don't mean to be preaching any sort of disabled-rights rhetoric here. I'm just speaking as one man for whom tokens work and MetroCards do not, will not and cannot.

And what about the rest of the city's commuters?

Even if the day comes when MetroCards work as reliably as tokens (we certainly aren't at that point yet)?what about the vending machines? Monday morning rush hour, you and several hundred other commuters get down to the station to find that all the machines are broken (this is the MTA we're talking about?and New York?these machines will be broken)?and worse, there's no one there to report it to or to buy a card from. What then? This scene will face every commuter, sooner or later.

And I've barely mentioned the loss of jobs, and the increased danger. Someone falls on the tracks, whom do you tell?

Oh, my rancor grew the more I thought about this outrage.

Then, well, I called the MTA, spoke with a gentleman named Al O'Leary, and set out all of my complaints?asking him, first and foremost, why they were getting rid of tokens in the first place.

"We moved to Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) and MetroCards so we could offer discounts, free transfers and other opportunities to our customers," he said. I had some serious doubts about that, but let him go on. "In doing that, we will be reaching a point in the next few years where our entire system will be fully automated. The MetroCard vending machines offer a wider opportunity to purchase fares?you can use debit cards or credit cards?which is something you could not do at the booth."

The plan, he said, was agreed to in the last round of contract negotiations with the Transport Workers Union. And despite complaints from the newly installed TWU administration, O'Leary says the plan is going to stick. It involves replacing token booths with vending machines?and, O'Leary says, despite allegations, there will still be a real human employee available at each station, though not as many, and they won't be selling MetroCards. The manpower decrease, he says, will occur through retirement and promotion?and that alone will save the MTA $6.5 million.

"No one gets laid off, no one loses a job. Plus, because we're hiring bus drivers and subway train operators, there are opportunities for upward mobility from the station agent ranks."

I asked Mr. O'Leary about the inevitability of broken vending machines.

"They haven't broken yet."

"I've seen a few," I pointed out.

"Well, here's what happens. These things were well thought out and well planned. We did a tremendous amount of customer focus groups, so we'd have machines that people like. And people do like them. Not to say that there aren't people who are technophobic, and won't use them unless they have no alternative?but once they do use them we find they like them. As far as the vandalism of the machines, it's a hardened machine. You cannot get money out of it, unless you have the ability to get into the vault. The vandals learn that."

Still, the machines are reasonably new. I remained skeptical about what things would be like six or seven years down the road, but I let that slide, too, and explained to Mr. O'Leary my own troubles, being blind and all, with MetroCards and vending machines.

Well, he then explained that the machines are equipped with both braille instructions and voice technology. All I need to do (given that I don't know braille) is plug in a set of headphones?if I can figure out where?and the instructions will be read to me. And each MetroCard has a small hole punched in it for just the reasons I cited?if my right index finger is on that hole, the card is in the correct position.

"You never noticed that?" he asked.

"Nope. Tried it once, got confused, went back to tokens. Been happy ever since."

"I don't know how you'll know the balance on your card," he admitted, "?although I would advise someone who's in that position, if you travel a great deal around the city, to buy a weeklong or monthly unlimited ride pass, so you'll only have to remember what day it runs out."

So yes, he had all the answers, and yes, the answers made sense. But while the new TWU administration continues its promised grassroots campaign against the move, I think I'm still going to stick with tokens until I have absolutely no choice in the matter.