Path Unlimited How Long Swipe Again

The MetroCard

The MetroCard is a thin, credit-card sized farecard made of (cheap) plastic. Information technology has been the farecard for the subway many decades, but is currently being phased out by the new contactless OMNY organisation. However, the MetroCard is still fully operational at least until July 2023. Nearly of the time, the card looks similar this (front and back):

Occasionally, the MetroCard also carries advertisements on either side, so it might not be yellow equally above, but it always has a blackness magnetic stripe at the lesser, iii rounded corners, and 1 "cut off" corner.

The back of the card has what I call a physical expiration appointment which is usually set up pretty far in the future. This physical expiration date is fixed and indicates the time when the card becomes unusable and must be exchanged for some other one at a token booth. This concrete expiration date has nothing to do with the value and time on the card, and then don't confuse this date with the expiration of an Unlimited Ride window (which I volition explain that later). This physical expiration appointment is merely there to forcefulness old cards out of rotation.

A MetroCard can operate in ii modes: Regular and Unlimited Ride. Physically, the bill of fare looks identical regardless of which mode it is currently in, so you can't tell the difference unless y'all swipe it at a menu reader. Regardless of the type of MetroCard, information technology costs $i simply to buy the carte. There likewise exists an all-white Single-Ride ticket for $3 that yous can buy at ticket booths, simply unless you really only going to take a unmarried ride, it is not economical to buy it.

Children nether 44 inches (112 cm.) regardless of age tin can ride trains for gratuitous and don't need to buy a menu as long as they are accompanied by a fare-paying adult. (The children can just walk underneath the turnstile.)

Regular MetroCard (Pay-Per-Ride)

The regular MetroCard (too known as a Pay-Per-Ride card) carries a real dollar value that decreases every time you take the subway (hence "pay per ride"). Yous tin can keep on adding value to the card whenever your residue runs low. The fee to buy the card itself is $1 and is not refundable. This $one cannot be used to pay for rides (and is therefore not reflected in the balance).

In this carte way, the cost of riding the subway is $two.75 per ride (regardless of the destination or length of the ride).

Pay-Per-Ride cards can be shared past upward to four people. To share a card, you tin can swipe the card multiple times to let multiple people through the turnstiles. You can do this individually by swiping the MetroCard, letting the commencement person enter, swiping information technology again to let the next person enter, and and then on, or you tin can swipe the card multiple times back to back and then let the corresponding number of people walk through the turnstiles.

You tin can also use this Pay-Per-Ride card to pay for some other public transportation in New York City, such equally the buses, the AirTrain to/from the JFK airport or the PATH commuter trains from/to New Bailiwick of jersey.

You can combine the values of multiple Pay-Per-Ride cards past going to the data booth and asking the bellboy to combine them for y'all. When yous do so, simply the current balances are accumulated; the $one fee for each carte is not taken into account.

Unlimited Ride cards

Unlimited Ride cards allow y'all to ride the subway (and buses) as often as you want, every bit long as the time window that you bought for the card hasn't passed. There are only two fourth dimension windows bachelor:

• 7-Day Unlimited Ride: $33 (+ $1 fee for the card itself);
• 30-Day Unlimited Ride: $127 (+ $1 fee for the card itself);

Distressing, there aren't any unmarried-24-hour interval or weekend passes. If you recall you are going to make more 12 private trips (a very likely scenario for tourists staying more than two days), buying a 7-Day Unlimited Ride bill of fare volition be cheaper than paying 12 times.

The fourth dimension window does not activate until you swipe the carte du jour for the very kickoff time at a turnstile to enter the system. For instance, you tin can buy the card on January 17, actuate it on April 1, and it will expire at midnight between April 7 and April 8.

Unlimited cards ever expire exactly at midnight on the 7th or 30th day, regardless of the time you lot activated the card on the first day. For instance, if yous activate a 7-Day Unlimited Ride card on Monday forenoon, it will expire Sun night at midnight. If yous activate the card Monday evening at 11:30pm, it nonetheless expires Sunday night at midnight. As a consequence, you effectively get to employ it simply for 6 days and 30 minutes. In that instance, you are better off paying for a single ride using the Pay-Per-Ride card then activating the Unlimited Ride carte du jour the next morn.

Unlimited Ride cards cannot be shared by two people. In fact, there is a (roughly) 18-minute filibuster between each swipe to prevent the carte du jour from existence used by more than than one person.

As noted before, on the back of every MetroCard you'll find a printed physical expiration date. Do non confuse the printed physical card expiration date with the paid expiration of the Unlimited Ride time window.

A menu can bear both time and value

A carte du jour can carry "fourth dimension ", "value", or both. In other words, yous can add a dollar value to an Unlimited Ride menu or buy time to an existing Pay-Per-Ride card. When this happens, the time portion always takes precedence when y'all swipe information technology at a turnstile (it volition activate the time window as necessary). After the time portion of the card has expired, it will then (and just then) offset draining the value of your card. This too implies that you cannot use this carte with multiple people as a 2nd swipe on the carte du jour volition be denied as "Only used" despite the card carrying monetary value in addition. Lastly, MetroCards can be refilled. Provided that the physical expiration date on the back of the card has non passed, you can reload a new Unlimited Ride fourth dimension window or simply money onto an expired or empty card.

Buying a MetroCard

You can buy a MetroCard at whatsoever subway station, either at a staffed ticket booth or MetroCard vending motorcar located inside the subway station. They look like this:

The small ane on the left does non accept cash, whereas the big machines on the right accept both cash and credit cards. While each subway station is guaranteed to have these machines, not every entrance to a subway station gives you lot access to them. If you enter the station but do non see these machines, simply become out and find another nearby entrance to the aforementioned station.

The screen on the automobile does not have the well-nigh intuitive layout. I've devised the post-obit simplified flowchart to navigate this machine:

Remember that in improver to the price listed above, you must add together $i for the card itself.

When you pay with cash on the large machines, annotation that they tin can only return up to $9 in cash (paid out in $i coins). When you pay by ATM or credit card, the machine will ask yous for the Cipher code associated with your business relationship. If you come from outside the United states of america, just enter 99999 as your Zilch code. Exercise note that sometimes ATM/credit card companies prevent you from buying multiple MetroCards in quick succession to minimize theft abuse. Usually they limit purchases to two new MetroCards per credit carte per day, and then plan appropriately if you travel in a group that needs separate Unlimited Ride MetroCards on their commencement 24-hour interval.

Inside subway stations you can also observe some standalone MetroCard readers where you can swipe a given MetroCard to check its balance and time:

The display of these MetroCard readers can be a little confusing, so allow's have a await at some mutual scenarios. If you just added an unlimited time window to a MetroCard and accept not activated this time window withal, the carte will display both the unactivated unlimited fourth dimension window likewise equally any monetary value you might as well have on the carte:

In the in a higher place example, I have a 7-twenty-four hours unlimited time window and also every bit $33.40 on my carte. You might exist confused by the outset line displaying "Time EXPIRED", but that'southward just considering I used to accept a previous unlimited time window on the card that has already expired. The recently-purchased vii-twenty-four hours window has not activated even so. To make matters worse, these readers also display on the last line the (mostly useless) physical expiration fourth dimension (which is printed on the back of the carte du jour anyways). Once more, don't confuse that date with whatsoever of the unlimited fourth dimension windows.

In one case you lot really have activated the unlimited fourth dimension window portion of a MetroCard, these readers will display when the time window will elapse every bit well as the last time this card was swiped at a turnstile:

The keyword to look for is "THRU" to determine that the time window is currently active until the specified date (of 06/15/xvi in the above example). Note that even though the reader just displays the expiration appointment, it is unsaid that the time window expires exactly at eleven:59pm on that date.

Lastly, once the time window has expired, the reader might even so display the time window that y'all once had:

Because the display does non display "THRU <date>", it ways that the vii-day unlimited fourth dimension window has expired. The display also shows "Bereft FARE" considering the available $0.40 I also have on the carte du jour would non be sufficient to pay for a single ride anyways.

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Source: http://www.nycsubwayguide.com/subway/metrocard.aspx

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