Token clerks and other transit employees wore bright yellow baseball caps, television crews taped one another using the new bright blue-and-yellow magnetized plastic cards and a man who usually sells tokens held a megaphone and did a passable impression of a sideshow barker.
"Step right up, ladies and gentlemen," he said. "Five dollars, $10, $20 or more, it's your choice!"
At two subway stations yesterday morning, the Whitehall Street Station on the N and R lines and the Wall Street station on the 4 and 5, the metal token began to disappear. A fixture of New York life since 1953, when the price of a ride soared to 15 cents, tokens are being replaced by fare cards in a process to be complete in four years.
From $5 to $80
The cards were sold for $5 increments yesterday, from $5 to $80. They deduct the $1.25 fare for each ride when swiped through an electronic reader attached to each turnstile. When a card's value is depleted, it can be turned in and more rides can be bought on it.
By April, 69 of the busiest stations will be equipped to take them. Within four years, plans call for all subway stations and all of the city's 3,650 buses to take the cards.
Enthusiasm for the cards pleased officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who said that by noon 600 cards had been sold for a total of $10,000.
Most bought $15 cards, said an M.T.A. spokesman, John Cunningham.
"I expected 100 people for the entire day," said Elsie Christian, a Wall Street token clerk who by 10 A.M. had sold twice that amount.
Mastering the Technique
Yesterday's pioneers were the first to begin mastering the technique of swiping a card through the electronic slots. Best is to guide the card through smoothly, neither too fast nor too slow. Barbara Brown, a banker, said her card was rejected twice because she swiped too slowly. It worked on the third attempt. She said she would probably not buy one again.
"It's like swinging your hand at a slow tennis ball coming your way," said Joseph G. Rappaport, coordinator of the Straphangers Campaign, a transportation watchdog group.
People seemed to get the hang of it. "We didn't have any bad swipes," said Arun Goyal, a computer specialist for the Transit Authority who helped create the card system.
Officials said the cards are made to standards set by New Yorkers who used them in trial runs and participated in focus groups. The cards never leave the owner's hand, a useful feature.
One rider eager to make his mark in history arrived at the Wall Street station at 10 P.M. on Wednesday night in order to buy the first card to go on sale at midnight, said Matt Holland, a station supervisor.
Naturally, some customers walked right past all the hoopla and marched up to ask the clerk at the Whitehall Street station to ask for their usual handful of tokens. When asked why she did not buy a card, Barbara Goddard of Staten Island said, "I never thought about it."
Nick Bacolas, a student who walked past the man with the megaphone, a table full of brochures and several banners on the way to buying his usual tokens, said, "I don't know anything about the card."
Others were eager. "This is out of my way, actually," said Orin Brathwaite, a payroll specialist on his way to work in Weehawken, N.J., from his home in East New York, Brooklyn. He used five minutes to stop to be one of the first to buy a card.
At the Wall Street station, Geri Weiss, who works in marketing for the New York Stock Exchange, said the card would be more convenient. "It'll be a lot easier than carrying around heavy tokens in a small purse," she said.
Others had misgivings. "The card will be easier to lose," said Bill Krulish, an investigator for Chemical Bank, who bought a $5 card.
The M.T.A. claims myriad benefits from the new cards. Riders may ultimately be able to buy them with bank cards from vending machines and use them for the Metro-North Commuter Railroad, the Long Island Rail Road, the Staten Island ferry and automobile bridge tolls, said Russ Broshous, president of the M.T.A. Card Company, the agency created to establish automatic fare collection.
Fare Discounts
More immediate is the possibility of fare discounts. The cards make it easier to give special rates for different times and volumes, simply by plugging the new information into a central computer, Mr. Broshous said.
"Discount pricing will be an important facet in making MetroCard attractive to the public," said Andrew Albert, chairman of the New York City Transit.
Authority Advisory Council.
An advisory task force is considering discounts for bulk purchases, monthly cards and off-peak travel. Free transfers between subways and buses are also envisioned. Peter E. Stangl, chairman of the authority, has endorsed such discounts.
But the M.T.A. estimates that it would lose $250 million if it enacted all the discounts being discussed, even after new riders lured by lower fares are figured in. Mr. Cunningham said this means general fares would have to be raised or the state would have to increase its subsidy.
Mr. Broshous said that even in the absence of fare subsidies, the new technology will make riding the subways safer because it is intended to make it harder for people to beat fares. "Muggers generally don't pay," he said, "so we make it a whole lot harder for them not to pay."
Among those with opinions about the fare card was Dave Adams, who works in the mail room at Citibank. He said its introduction was prophesied in the Bible.
"The Bible states that everything is going to be stamped," he said. "Dollar bills are going to be obsolete."
Mr. Adams nonetheless said that he is sticking with tokens, until the cards are introduced in the Bronx where he lives.
