The MTA's $1 MetroCard 'green' fee is producing unexpected revenue for the transit agency

[Mtatransit]

I used to get Metro card that has small amount of value on it and combine them. At the end I got a total of 30 dollars. But that was before the green charge

When tons of cards were thrown away before the surcharge, it was estimated that the MTA pocketed millions of dollars in small change left on the cards which I believe amounted to something like 10 or 20 million dollars a year.  With fewer cards thrown away that amount has to have been greatly reduced.

 

Do you think the MTA remembered to subtract that amount from the gross revenue they are receiving from the dollar surcharge before publishing the amount of "unexpected" revenue received or are they now overestimating the new revenue? 

when you dispose the metrocard inside the container dosent it  elimate all the value on the card?

[bobtehpanda]

I used to get Metro card that has small amount of value on it and combine them. At the end I got a total of 30 dollars. But that was before the green charge

 

 

when you dispose the metrocard inside the container dosent it  elimate all the value on the card?

 

Not really, and that's not how the MTA made money on the old cards - say you paid for a card, and you threw it away because by the time you were done with it, it had $.30 on it. Since you already paid for the $.30 on the card, however, it's essentially "free" money for the MTA because they gave this $.30 as part of your payment but you never decided to use it, so this is $.30 of service they don't have to provide.

 

Whether or not this accidental revenue was worth it is something else, because most of the time the amount left on the card is less than what was given as part of the pay-per-ride discount.

[QM1to6Ave]

I don't think so at all.  Many of them are cheapskates anyway, especially the Europeans so I say milk them anyway you can.  They're obnoxious, always blocking the way and staring at everything as if our way of life is SOOOO strange or inferior to how they live  .  Makes me sick.

LOL aren't you Mr. World Traveler?

 

When tons of cards were thrown away before the surcharge, it was estimated that the MTA pocketed millions of dollars in small change left on the cards which I believe amounted to something like 10 or 20 million dollars a year.  With fewer cards thrown away that amount has to have been greatly reduced.

 

Do you think the MTA remembered to subtract that amount from the gross revenue they are receiving from the dollar surcharge before publishing the amount of "unexpected" revenue received or are they now overestimating the new revenue? 

 

It still seems like a lot of cards are getting thrown away. It will take time for people to break their old habits, and until the nthe MTA pockets the profit. 

[R10 2952]

Don't worry, they'll still find a way to blow even this slim profit.

[checkmatechamp13]

when you dispose the metrocard inside the container dosent it  elimate all the value on the card?

 

....which basically means the money goes back to the MTA.

[B35 via Church]

....which basically means the money goes back to the MTA.

The MTA already has your money, regardless if a card is discarded or kept & utilized....

 

What the MTA won't implement (which is something I always thought about since day one of the MC) is a way for you to cash your card(s) out on the MVM's......

[Turbo19]

The MTA already has your money, regardless if a card is discarded or kept & utilized....

 

What the MTA won't implement (which is something I always thought about since day one of the MC) is a way for you to cash your card(s) out on the MVM's......

Now why would the MTA go and return it's revenue back to the passengers?

[B35 via Church]

Now why would the MTA go and return it's revenue back to the passengers?

Lol.....

 

I've actually had a tourist ask me (after I got through refilling my MC) if there was a way you could "get your money back from these machines"..... I briefly told him no, and that they don't work like ATM's.... He then went on to tell me that this was his last day in America & that he's going back to the Netherlands & what not.... What I did was give him the 6 bucks (after I went to the MVM to doublecheck, wasn't gonna take his word for it..... this was back when the fare was 2 bucks) in exchange for the MC....

 

I was in one of my better moods that day, so, no harm, no foul was the way I saw it....

(I had used that card to go fanning later that weekend....)

[Turbo19]

Lol.....

 

I've actually had a tourist ask me (after I got through refilling my MC) if there was a way you could "get your money back from these machines"..... I briefly told him no, and that they don't work like ATM's.... He then went on to tell me that this was his last day in America & that he's going back to the Netherlands & what not.... What I did was give him the 6 bucks (after I went to the MVM to doublecheck, wasn't gonna take his word for it..... this was back when the fare was 2 bucks) in exchange for the MC....

 

I was in one of my better moods that day, so, no harm, no foul was the way I saw it....

(I had used that card to go fanning later that weekend....)

LOL, with my he'd probably be shit out of luck. Too many people just perpetuating bullshit tactics to make a cheap buck, kind of gets old after a while.

[B35 via Church]

....Too many people just perpetuating bullshit tactics to make a cheap buck, kind of gets old after a while.

Yup, the connivery's long gotten old.... and it's exactly why I ran the MC through the MVM to make sure that there was money on the thing.

 

He handed me the MC before I gave him anything - so if it's anyone that would've been out anything, it would've been him.

[bobtehpanda]

Lol.....

 

I've actually had a tourist ask me (after I got through refilling my MC) if there was a way you could "get your money back from these machines"..... I briefly told him no, and that they don't work like ATM's.... He then went on to tell me that this was his last day in America & that he's going back to the Netherlands & what not.... What I did was give him the 6 bucks (after I went to the MVM to doublecheck, wasn't gonna take his word for it..... this was back when the fare was 2 bucks) in exchange for the MC....

 

I was in one of my better moods that day, so, no harm, no foul was the way I saw it....

(I had used that card to go fanning later that weekend....)

 

If he took the to Jamaica to take the AirTrain, there's a group of people who would be more than happy to take unused cards off of peoples' hands...

 

Heck, I've been targeted a few times, because Chinese people don't ever go to Jamaica, right?

[Via Garibaldi 8]

If he took the to Jamaica to take the AirTrain, there's a group of people who would be more than happy to take unused cards off of peoples' hands...

 

Heck, I've been targeted a few times, because Chinese people don't ever go to Jamaica, right?

In this city? Please.... Chinese people are like Duane Reade's... Everywhere you go... 

[peacemak3r]

Sad to say VG8 is right with that statement.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Sad to say VG8 is right with that statement.

Well it goes to show that Chinese folks are all over the city.  There aren't a lot in Riverdale but here and there I've seen them.  

[B35 via Church]

If he took the to Jamaica to take the AirTrain, there's a group of people who would be more than happy to take unused cards off of peoples' hands...

 

Heck, I've been targeted a few times, because Chinese people don't ever go to Jamaica, right?

Are you trying to say that you were targeted because Chinese are a minority in Jamaica?

 

.....Because I sure as hell never made a statement saying that Chinese people don't ever go to Jamaica.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Are you trying to say that you were targeted because Chinese are a minority in Jamaica?

 

.....Because I sure as hell never made a statement saying that Chinese people don't ever go to Jamaica.

LMAO!! That's what he's saying alright, but I don't understand how you would think that he was implying that you made the statement... 

[B35 via Church]

LMAO!! That's what he's saying alright, but I don't understand how you would think that he was implying that you made the statement... 

Well that's one of the two ways that post of his read to me.

 

The combination of how the post read to me, along with his italicization of the word ever & the smilie to end the post went a long way towards that....

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Well that's one of the two ways that post of his read to me.

 

The combination of how the post read to me, along with his italicization of the word ever & the smilie to end the post went a long way towards that....

lol... I don't think he was implying that at all...

[VWM]

This is bad for Non-New Yorkers...

[CenSin]

In this city? Please.... Chinese people are like Duane Reade's... Everywhere you go... 

Ironic true story: there was a Duane Reade in Chinatown that I used to go to. It went out of business. Good thing Duane Reade isn't actually omnipresent. Return Chinatown to the Chinese. I don't ever want to see another Seven Eleven, McDonald's, or and American chain business open in an ethnic place. I don't go to Koreatown for a Slurpee or Little Italy for a hamburger.

 

 

Well it goes to show that Chinese folks are all over the city. There aren't a lot in Riverdale but here and there I've seen them.

I was up in Riverdale just a few days ago. All the friends I was with were Latino or Black, of course.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Ironic true story: there was a Duane Reade in Chinatown that I used to go to. It went out of business. Good thing Duane Reade isn't actually omnipresent. Return Chinatown to the Chinese. I don't ever want to see another Seven Eleven, McDonald's, or and American chain business open in an ethnic place. I don't go to Koreatown for a Slurpee or Little Italy for a hamburger.

lol... They probably didn't have their signs in Chinese so none of the Chinese went in. 

 

I was up in Riverdale just a few days ago. All the friends I was with were Latino or Black, of course.

 

Why would they be Latino or Black of course?? 

[peacemak3r]

I think in the previous statements, "Asians" should have been used and not Chinese.

 

And bad for the tourists?  Well too bad, they need the revenue, imagine the tourists renting a car and crossing the Verrazano?  $15 with cash isn't bad enough compared to a $1 for a new card?

[Turbo19]

I think in the previous statements, "Asians" should have been used and not Chinese.

 

And bad for the tourists?  Well too bad, they need the revenue, imagine the tourists renting a car and crossing the Verrazano?  $15 with cash isn't bad enough compared to a $1 for a new card?

I don't see anything wrong with tourists paying the fee. If the average NY'er has to pay a one time fee, then the tourists should pay it as well. Same thing down in LA with TAP. I'm sure they're are many more examples, but fact is fees like this are becoming very common across the U.S.

 

It's not like like the masses are visiting NYC with the intention of not purchasing anything.

 

Oh great, you're a tourist? Then pay the damn dollar, and use your MetroCard as you wish. Special treatment? Please, this is public transit.

[Grand Concourse]

Ironic true story: there was a Duane Reade in Chinatown that I used to go to. It went out of business. Good thing Duane Reade isn't actually omnipresent. Return Chinatown to the Chinese. I don't ever want to see another Seven Eleven, McDonald's, or and American chain business open in an ethnic place. I don't go to Koreatown for a Slurpee or Little Italy for a hamburger.

 

I was up in Riverdale just a few days ago. All the friends I was with were Latino or Black, of course.

Yeah, I remember that DR, it was right across or in the area of the Manny b. I think that it was 'too western' for the community and people that lived there would rather go to the chinese medicine stores or whatever herbal places instead of a DR.

I don't see anything wrong with McDonalds there. They have 2 stores and the one on Bowery looks really neat with a chinese imitation exterior. The one on canal and Lafayette seems to be there forever, so I don't see that ever going away. Plus you have a bunch of tourists going thru Chinatown, so it'll get some business whether the community likes it or not.

=

As for Jamaica, I was on the street a couple of times to get pics of the pbl buses (2005). Never had any issues there and I was probably the only asian person there. Now, dunno if I'd walk on the streets there by myself.

[TriboroughBridge]

Once NY realizes you CAN refill cards, the MTA will not be getting this money anymore.

 

yes, but the won't be wasting money having to make as many Metrocards as they used to, cause people are refilling them, rather than throwing them them out after a few uses.