What is "metrocard"

The MetroCard is the payment method for the New York City Subway; New York City Transit buses, including routes operated by Atlantic Express under contract to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), MTA Bus, and Nassau Inter-County Express systems; PATH; the Roosevelt Island Tramway; AirTrain JFK; and Westchester County's Bee-Line Bus System. It is a thin, plastic card on which the customer electronically loads fares. It was introduced to enhance the technology of the transit system and eliminate the burden of carrying and collecting tokens. The MTA discontinued the use of tokens in the subway on May 3, 2003, and on buses on December 31, 2003. The MetroCard is managed by a division of the MTA known as Revenue Control, MetroCard Sales -- part of the Office of the Executive Vice President. The MetroCard Vending Machines are manufactured by Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc.

The following fare cards are known as the MetroCard or Metrocard:

• MetroCard (New York City), United States, used on subways, buses, and other systems in the New York metropolitan area
• MetroCard (Tokyo), used in several Tokyo subway systems 1988–2007, replaced by the Pasmo RFID card
• Metrocard (Christchurch), used on buses on public transport routes in Christchurch and Timaru under the "Metro" branding
• Metrocard (Los Angeles County), used on several municipal bus systems in Los Angeles
• MetroCard (West Yorkshire), used on buses and rail in West Yorkshire
• METROcard (Sydney), used on the Metro Monorail and light rail in Sydney, Australia
• Metrocard (Adelaide), being rolled-out in 2012-2013 on Metro trains, trams and buses in Adelaide, Australia

A metrocard is a contactless smartcard ticketing system using MIFARE-Technology and being rolled out across the Adelaide Metro bus, train and tram system. It is similar to the Octopus Card and Oyster Card used in Hong Kong and London respectively. The contract for the system was tendered out, and in 2010 was awarded to Affiliated Computer Services using technology used in, among others, Montreal, Canada, Houston, Texas and Toulouse, France.

It was originally scheduled to become fully operative in early 2013, however due to overwhelmingly positive response from trial users it was launched on 3 November 2012.