By Julia Zichello
MetroCard machines in subway stations all over the city are disappearing.
Recently, I saw the machine at the 103rd Street 1 train station was flagged for removal, and exactly one week later it was gone. Like a death that shook you, even though you knew it was coming – though I know what you may be thinking: Who uses MetroCards anymore?
MetroCards were first introduced in the winter of 1994, and sales will officially end this December (you will still be able to use your already-purchased card some time into 2026). But soon the days will be gone when you help your tourist friend master the it’s-all-in-the-wrist swipe while a gentle panic rises in their kind eyes. Now they can just tap their phone, OMNY card, or credit card. Easy. Although some say, not so much.
As an evolutionary biologist, the removal of these machines made me think about extinction. And I have been imagining which natural extinction story the MetroCard machine removal is technically most similar to.
There have been five mass extinctions in the history of life on Earth, where a substantial proportion of living organisms went extinct, together. The most dramatic, the Permian extinction (sometimes called “The Great Dying”), occurred before the dinosaurs, 252 million years ago when 90% of all marine organisms and 70% percent of land-dwelling animals died out. It was possibly triggered by volcanic eruptions which, through a cascade of geochemical events, released a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The dinosaur extinction, 65 million years ago, happened with a bang. WHAM! An asteroid hit the Earth and kicked up so many particulates into the atmosphere that it blocked out the sun, acidified the oceans, and changed the world.
But these big extinction events are nothing like the die-off of MetroCard machines. This process is more gradual – a bittersweet dwindling, if you will. One by one they leave the stations, probably with some considerable effort by MTA employees. Right now, on the 1 train line they are already extinct from the 103rd and 96th Street stations. And on the downtown side of the 1 train stop at 110th Street, a machine is “dead” and flagged for removal.
And then, it hit me! The gradual disappearance of MetroCard machines, and their temporary coexistence with the similar (but different) OMNY machines, is most like Neanderthal extinction. The two machines are similar in anatomy only with slight differences in size, response time, and internal mechanics. They are also competing (somewhat), and eventually one will completely replace the other.
Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) were a close human relative (hominin), which lived alongside Homo sapiens, ate similar foods, exchanged genes, and maybe even ideas—and died out about 35,000 years ago. Human evolution wasn’t a linear process, where one species evolved into another and then another and eventually evolved into humans. Instead, there were very similar (but technically different) hominin species living at the same time and in the same locations (just like the OMNY and MetroCard machines, but even more intimate, at times).
Neanderthals have a bad rap. They weren’t unsophisticated brutes as they have been depicted for years in the media. They made intricate tools, were highly social, and may have even buried their dead. After decades of research, it is now understood that they probably weren’t all that different from the Homo sapiens which coexisted with them.
It is too easy to make fun of a Neanderthal, just as it’s too easy to make fun of the now endangered MetroCard. How old-fashioned. Luddite alert. Move on! But even making fun of Neanderthals for being unintelligent and outdated is scientifically—outdated. As for MetroCards, they got us around for 31 years. Picture a montage of your subway life, set to this song on top of the charts in 1994: swiping to work, the movies, dinners out, concerts, museums, beaches, the times when you couldn’t wait to get the hell out of here, and then couldn’t wait to get the hell home. You held the whole city in your pocket, in a piece of flimsy plastic.
MetroCards will soon become an artifact of swipes gone by. And because they are plastic, they will linger too long. But the machines that dispensed them won’t. So, consider stopping down at the 72nd or 79th Street 1 train station, to pay your respects to the MetroCard machines still standing there. Thank them for their service (even though the screen froze sometimes). Slap one on its side and tell it that it had a good run. Take a selfie with it. Or, just ignore its existence and soon-to-be non-existence. And keep on moving.
Julia Zichello is an evolutionary biologist living on the Upper West Side, and currently writing a book for Columbia University Press.
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Nice twist: Metrocards and hominim evolution. I switched my Metrocard info to my AmEx and take pleasure in tapping in my reduced fares with it.
Wait until you’re triple billed.
And even if that doesn’t happen, you’re giving big brother even more information than using a Metrocard would.
Note that you can still buy and refill an OMNY card with cash. I tested it out the other day.
The MetroCard machine is still on the 87th entrance to the downtown 1 train as well
And j’adore the Omny. So much faster than MetroCard.
So much more triple billing with the OMNI card.
How about the extinction of the metrocard vis-a-vis the extinction of the token? I feel like we’ve already seen this before. And tokens had been around much longer. So by comparison, this is kind of a nothing burger…
No it’s huge. Because of the universality of access at one level – system wide multi transit system connection to banks and credit system (and middleman profits, and traceability, but also lack of transparency potential) – and because of the separation from the universality of cash. Though you can still buy a card with cash and just use it – but you pay extra for the card, unlike a token. Hope that interface will work smoothly even if it is less used.
and telephone booths?
Nice angle!
If Metrocards will be still be valid until the end of this year why do the machines have to be removed now? The few booth clerks that are still around can’t do card transactions. People still have old cards to use up, combine or need to add money to them to make an even number of fares from the balance.
They’re forcing people to make the transition well before the deadline.
MTA focusing on things like new technology payment systems is a great way to avoid focusing on, say, technology that would prevent people stealing subway trains and taking them for a joyride, or technology that stops folks being thrown onto the tracks etc. Plus ultimately Mayor Mamdani will demand free subways as once the buses are free it will be considered discriminatory to charge people who have to ride the subway.
The design of the machines and their interface were actually award-winning. We took the usability for granted, but it was quite well done.
https://www.antennadesign.com/work/transit/metrocard-vending-machine
Thanks for the article and for this comment! A salute to the red-green-blue-yellow that when it worked seemed a fantastically colorful and clear interface for convenient transit payment. (And I remember back to not just tokens but changes in token design – and the way the old ones would lurk around your dresser tops waiting for inspiration – ornament? Coaster? – Yes, the plastic is a worse remnant ecologically but in theory there were fewer of them (can’t be true, can it? Reusability was the secret token superpower. Ugh to the geological age of plastics.) Anyway, here’s to that era, design and anthropological, when screen and stainless met retro and public interactivity with solid design. Loved them. Still have one last MetroCard as backup in my physical wallet. (Next to my OMNY card, because I want to be able to get home even if phone dies…never mind, another topic….)
I’ve been using the Omni card for the past few months, with several not so great issues. Mainly their website is a technological disaster and their customer service is non-existent.
The gradual extinction of the iconic subway token was far more traumatic, imho. It was more than a different species; it was a different genus.
When you enter the turnstile with an OMNY card, you no longer instantly receive your card balance. You have to go to the OMNY machine where you buy and refill your card to get your balance. It is so much more convenient to receive your balance on the go, IMO.
go to OMNY.info – get balance and refill your card – all at once and from your home/apt. I do. It’s great.
That is MTA’s sneaky little plan to steal money out of your pocket with no accountability.
So interesting l to put this in a long-range, biological perspective. It may be even more relevant to place MetroCard machine extinction in the geologic span of the Anthropocene
I guess it shows your age–the subject of relativity!-but professoe you nevr mention the wonderful metal Token that preceded the lousy plastic metro card. Like the CD the plastic card was never as good as the tokens which always worked ,no silly swipping.The better story of truth ,but not so light hearted is the terrible corruption that has always been in the MTA. We have congestion pricing going on almost a year and the subways still are lousy and undependable and yes,dangerous -even for life time new yorkers. How can they pay for all of these transitions of money taking and not improve the infrastructure of the subway system???! Pray tell,professor…
Last time filling metro card machine was still at 96th & Bway. Will eventually use Omni Card—- Will cards become extinct too.?
If ever there was a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” this is it. Instead of creating an entirely new system, the Metrocard system could have “tweaked” to BECOME what OMNY is. This was/is a HUGE waste of taxpayer money, to say nothing of a totally unnecessary inconvenience.
And I disagree with those who say that OMNY is “easier” to use. From long anecdotal evidence (since OMNY was introduced), particularly on buses, I see MORE problems with people trying to swipe their OMNY card or phone than I ever saw with Metrocards.
Oh, that’s if they even try to pay on the buses. They are free now for most people I see walking past the back door without a worry. And you wonder why the MTA is always crying they need money. 3/4 of the people boarding the buses that are the long extended versions don’t pay. What a brilliant MTA we have.
Reminder, because this confusion seems to be persisting: you don’t actually NEED an OMNY card (or to register with the system) unless you don’t have a tap-to-pay credit/debit card or you receive a discount. Everyone else can just use a credit card or their phone with Apple/Google Pay configured. (I myself tap in with my Apple Watch!) Using a credit card, there’s no need to worry about exhausting a balance (unless, of course, you’re up against your credit limit).
They will have to pry my Metrocard out of my white knuckled grip. I’m using it right to the end. The few times I tried OMNY, I was double and quadruple charged. Called to resolve and the robo told me I was 134th in the queue. No thanks. Let’s not break what isn’t broken.
P.S. My Neanderthal ancestry is higher than average, according to 23andMe.
A large percentage of the (European origin) population has Neanderthal genes, so perhaps there will be a bit of ‘Metro card DNA’ embedded in the OMNY cards … And if we trace back even further, perhaps even some subway-token-DNA in both … For I am old enough to remember the extinction of the subway token, and the sense of sorrow and wonder when the change to cards took place … Here’s to keeping on keeping on. As long as the subways remain …
I would dearly LOVE to recycle my old Metrocards. Is there any way to do this?
I think there is some way to make origami with them
I curently have mobility disability issues so I haven’t used public transport for over a decade. But I’m hoping my situation will improve in the not-too-distant-future. I don’t use or own a smartphone. I’m an old woman who loved the IT of the 80s-00s and have come to despise almost everything since, especially the world’s addiction to their phones. At some point, like it or not, I’ll have to get one. I’m heartened to hear there are now “dumber” smartphones. But in either case, I would not do ANYTHING financial on a phone. I don’t understand what this OMNY thing is. There’s a lot I don’t get; my aged bad. I haven’t used a subway since the 80s, but I do like buses. Can one still pay CASH on a bus? I don’t mind carrying rolls of quarters if need be. Of course, cash is so retro. I’m really glad I’m old. I can’t take too many more years of tech-ruled life!
It’s utterly outrageous how much money was wasted on these systems, and then wasted again when they were replaced, and will be ever wasted each time they are again replaced. Tokens cost next to nothing. MTA set a bad example for other transit systems, like SEPTA, which also disposed of their tokens.
My OMNY card works 50% of the time
…and what if we ever get to ‘free public transportation’ in NYC, whither then the cards?