97.METRO CARD AND IT’S TECHNOLOGY

The MetroCard is the current payment method for the New York City Subway (rapid transit) system, buses in the New York City Transit (including routes operated by Atlantic Express under contract to the MTA), MTA Bus, and Long Island Bus systems, the PATH subway system, the Roosevelt Island Tram, AirTrain JFK and Westchester County's Bee-Line Bus System. It is a thin, plastic card on which the customer electronically loads fares. It was introduced to enhance the technology of the transit system and eliminate the burden of carrying and collecting tokens.


The MTA discontinued the use of tokens in the subway on May 3, 2003 and on buses on December 31, 2003. The MetroCard is managed by a division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) known as MetroCard Operations and manufactured by Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc.[1]Each MetroCard stored value card is assigned a unique, permanent ten-digit serial number when it is manufactured. The value is stored magnetically on the card itself, while the card's transaction history is held centrally in the Automated Fare Collection (AFC) Database.


When a card is purchased and fares are loaded onto it, the MetroCard Vending Machine or station agent's computer stores the amount of the purchase onto the card and updates the database, identifying the card by its serial number. Whenever the card is swiped at a turnstile, the value of the card is read, the new value is written, the customer is let through, and then the central database is updated with the new transaction as soon as possible. Cards are not validated in real time against the database when swiped to pay the fare.


The AFC Database is necessary to maintain transaction records to track a card if needed. It has actually been used to acquit criminal suspects[citation needed] by placing them away from the scene of a crime. The database also stores a list of MetroCards that have been invalidated for various reasons (such as lost or stolen student or unlimited monthly cards), and it distributes the list to turnstiles in order to deny access to a revoked card.