New York City's Metro transit card is going away at the end of 2025, and the New York Transit Museum is honoring it with a farewell exhibit. NTD was there to collect the history of its story. -- 📺 Watch NTD News 24/7 on cable, broadcast, and streaming: https://www.ntd.com/watch
The Subway Metro Card has been a New
York City icon since 1994,
but now the simpletouse card is being
phased out at the end of the year. In
honor, the New York City Transit Museum
is hosting a farewell exhibit showing
the life and times of the Metrocard
entities. Shawn Marshall was there.
The New York transit system at one time
used coins as payment, then decided to
upgrade to a magnetic strip card in the
mid90s, but it's going away at the end
of the year and being replaced by a card
that can be tapped more easily, like a
credit card with a chip. And the New
York Transit Museum has curated a
memorial farewell exhibit honoring the
life of the Metro Card. If you've ever
tried to use the old Metro Card, you
would have noticed right away that there
is a trick to it. You have to swipe it
at just the right speed or you won't be
riding on the subway or bus.
>> The funny I guess the it it it's the
funny thing about Metrocard is that the
authority not only introduced this as a
new fair medium to replace the token,
but had to teach millions of New Yorkers
how to use it. Uh and some New Yorkers
still are getting the hang of it. The
MTA has managed to make some of their
cards have more perceived value by
making hard to get limited editions that
now sell for big bucks on eBay.
>> Uh and we have an extensive collection
of cards here at the New York Transit
Museum. So, it was a little bit
difficult to pick pick such a small
amount, but um we've got the first
rappers on a Metro Card, which is
Gangstar in 1998. Uh, we also have a
bunch of other rappers because they've
featured in Metrocards for a long time
and hiphop was formed in New York in the
Bronx. So, why not celebrate that
through Metrocard? The first TV show
advertised on a Metro Card was Spin City
in 1997, and that one is over there. The
first athletes on a Metro Card were the
New York Rangers in 1994.
We've got the first Subway Series Metro
Card, which is in 1997. And then there's
the Subway Series, World Series from
2000. So there's lots of so many things
happen in New York City that are worthy
of celebration and a fair amount of
those were celebrated on the backs of
Metro Cards.
>> There is one marketing idea that never
quite made it, the infamous Cardvark.
>> So one of the things that's very
prominent in our exhibit is the
Cardvark. uh when the when the MTA and
New York City Transit Authority were
figuring out how to market the Metro
Card and encourage New Yorkers to use it
because it existed alongside of tokens,
they thought of a whole bunch of
different marketing ideas to try to
encourage people to use it. And one of
them was Cardvark.
>> And while there, don't forget to check
out the popular gift shop with its
unique metro related items. Show
Marshall, NTD News.
