3 ms·
Hold up. The metro card side of the story doesn't make sense. Why would it relocate to Maspeth Queens, a place that is right in the middle of the transit desert
by NoToP 4y ago
Hold up. The metro card side of the story doesn't make sense. Why would it relocate to Maspeth Queens, a place that is right in the middle of the transit desert not reachable by subway at all. It's the exact opposite of 370 Jay. Nothing goes there. Is it just cheap parking for armored vehicle lot? Does it have anything to do with the MTA owned non passenger tracks which do go through there? And why was it considered so much more cumbersome to collect fares off the metro card machine compared to the booth sales? So many unanswered questions.
I do wonder if armored trains might be part of special scenario plans related to high value visitors to the UN. Think of it as a modern track 61.
- Spooky23 4y agoThere’s an article that does a better job describing it written when the guy who ran the operation retired. https://www.curbed.com/2021/04/al-putre-mta-money-room.html https://www.curbed.com/2021/04/al-putre-mta-money-room.html Basically the money train was a dinosaur with operational issues. They moved to armored cars. My guess is that the transition reduced the number of station agents required and reduced shrink, but increased NYPD overtime. (MTA lost the transit police in the 90s)
- scoopertrooper 4y agoI think this explains why: > Once the MetroCard vending machines came into the picture, it took a lot longer to collect all the money from a given station than it had from just the token booths, and the money train would sit for long stretches as passenger trains backed up behind it. Also, you can’t do money-collection runs at night if you’re doing track maintenance, and these days the MTA is always doing track maintenance.