From what I understand, not having contactless cards is the least of the MTA's modernization issues. http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/07/30/convert

From what I understand, not having contactless cards is the least of the MTA's modernization issues. http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/07/30/converting_the_new_york_city_subway_system_to_communications_based_train.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/07/30/convertin... http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/why-dont-we-know-where-all-the-trains-are/415152/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/why-do... It mostly seems to boil down to budgeting woes and bureaucracy. And in having one of the oldest subway systems in the country with a ton of technical debt to deal with.