The Transit Authority has put nearly 40,000 fare cards, worth over $500,000, into circulation in six weeks with no major technical problems and, believe it or not, no evidence of "skimming," "buffering" or other kinds of fraud, officials say.
Sales are slightly ahead of projections, as New Yorkers move from a 40-year-old system of tokens into the computer age with less hesitation than marketing experts had predicted.
To prod them along, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is negotiating with fast-food restaurants, supermarkets and other businesses, seeking a deal to have the businesses offer discounts to people with the cards, called MetroCards, in exchange for advertising that would reach the millions of people who ride the subway. There are no immediate plans for discounts for larger purchases.
In the 24 stations where the fare cards are sold, about 5 percent of riders are using them. One factor holding down use is that each rider making a round trip uses at least two stations a day, and only 24 of the system's 469 stations accept MetroCards; that makes it likely that the person must also carry tokens.
"It's a dilemma, because tokens are good everywhere," said Judi L. Squire, a spokeswoman for the MetroCard program. The plan is to have the cards available and accepted in the 69 busiest stations by April.
An Indicator Station
A guide to the future, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority believes, is the Grand Army Plaza Station in Brooklyn, which many riders use to get to Wall Street, where they also use a station that accepts the card. Participation at Grand Army Plaza is 14 percent.
The goal is 8 to 10 percent use by the end of 1994.
Between Jan. 6, when the cards were introduced as a substitute for 90 years of coins or tokens, through Thursday night, 39,072 cards had been sold, with an average value of $11, and 10,000 "refills" had been sold, with an average value of $9. Cards can be bought or refilled in multiples of $5 from a minimum of $5 to a maximum of $80. The price of a ride is $1.25; thus a $5 card buys 4 rides.
The most frequent token purchase level is a 10-pack, for $12.50. A substantial number of people buy two or three 10-packs at a time, and MetroCard program officials say they believe that many of these people will conclude that the card is superior because it makes a smaller lump in the pocket.
Officials could not say how many people are buying large denominations. They have been only modestly successful in the goal of increasing the size of the average transaction. A survey in late 1992, after the fare reached its current level, found that the average for token purchases was $9, or 7.2 tokens. Bigger purchases mean fewer people in line.
The Penn Station subway stop began selling MetroCards on Feb. 15, and quickly became the largest sale point. The cards are available now from token clerks but soon will also be available from ticket agents of the Long Island Rail Road.
Grand Central Terminal, another big entry point, is scheduled to join the system on March 15.
No Cheaters Found, Yet
Despite putting the cards into the hands of tens of thousands of New Yorkers, and posing a new challenge to computer hackers, there is no evidence so far that anyone has found a way to beat the system, said Richard G. Trenery, a vice president of the Transit Authority.
Two tactics the authority is watching for are skimming and buffering. Skimming means copying the data off the magnetic stripe on the card and using the copy as well as the original. But according to officials at the authority, each card has its own serial number, and the computer system would tip them off if the same number were used to enter the system twice in a short period from widely separated points.
Buffering means copying the card when it is new, and after it has been used for several rides, re-copying the original data back onto the card, so the card appears to regain its original value. But the system's central computer knows what the value of each card should be, taking into account its initial price, how many times it has been used and how many times it has been refilled, Mr. Trenery said.
Ways to Catch a Thief
A card that raises a cybernetic eyebrow, so to speak, can be handled in any of three ways. The system can "lock out" the holder, or it might let the holder through and flash a light on the turnstile to waiting transit police officers, he said. Or, the system might simply log the anomaly, so a human could see whether a pattern develops. But so far, the computer has not found a reason to be suspicious, he said.
"I wouldn't expect to see any fraud at this point," he added. "It's too early. That would be like taking a counterfeit $20 bill to a country store that only gets $5 bills. It would stand out like a sore thumb."
He added that the value of the cards is low relative to other items that can be counterfeited, like cash. In fact, though, the Transit Authority has an extensive collection of counterfeit tokens used to fool the existing mechanical system.
While hackers have not flocked to the cards, some less technically minded people have not either. Ms. Squire said she thought that the "demographically probable" users were a category called "early adopters," people who are the first to have a compact disk player, who like electronic gadgets and who use automatic teller machines. She said she knows some people like that who do not seem to be interested. "They say, it doesn't make sense for me, tokens are good everywhere," said Ms. Squire.
