Metropolitan Transport Authority

The fare for a subway or local bus ride is $2.75*. The fare for an express bus ride is $6.50. With MetroCard
your rides can cost less. You can buy MetroCard three ways:

Pay-Per-Ride MetroCard

Buy as many rides as you want:

At a station booth: from $5.50 to $80*

At a MetroCard Vending Machine: from $5.50 to $80*

Put $5.50 or more on your card and receive a 5 percent bonus. For example, a $20 purchase gives you
$21.00 on your card. Refill your card to use the balance.

You get an automatic free transfer between subway and bus, or between buses.

Unlimited Ride MetroCard

Buy an unlimited number of subway and bus rides for a fixed price.

7-Day Unlimited Pass

Cost: $32.00, reduced fare $16.00
Good for unlimited subway and local bus rides until midnight, 7 days from day of first use.
Note: PATH, AirTrain, and Express buses do not accept 7- and 30-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCard.

30-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCard

Cost: $121.00, reduced fare $60.50
Good for unlimited subway and local bus rides until midnight, 30 days from day of first use. This card is
protected against loss or theft when purchased at a vending machine with a credit or debit/ATM card.
Note: PATH, AirTrain, and Express buses do not accept 7- and 30-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCard.
When you enter a subway station, you are in an area that is called the “mezzanine”. In the mezzanine can be found
the turnstiles, and in most cases a “token booth.” There is also a large map of the entire subway system on the wall,
along with a bus map and a neighborhood map. You will also find machines where you can purchase fare cards,
called “MetroCards”. You can also buy MetroCards from the “railroad clerk” in the booth. If you want your own
subway map or bus map, the clerk has these in the booth -- they are FREE, so ask for one!!!

Now, in some stations, certain less-busy entrances may be closed at some hours – but the main entrance will be
open all the time. (By the way, the way you can tell if an entrance is open 24 hours is that there is a green light over
it – entrances with red lights are either locked part of the time, or can be accessed only with MetroCards) You will
always find a staffed token booth at the main entrance to the station, even if other entrances or booths are closed.

There are a variety of ways of buying MetroCards – you can either buy a card with a set dollar amount (which you
can increase by giving the clerk more money as the car is used; she can add the value to the card electronically), or
you can buy a card with unlimited use for a certain period of time. The cards with set values may be used my several
riders -- for example, if you have $20.00 of value on a card, up to ten different people can enter the subway using
that one card. However, if you have an “unlimited use” card, you will NOT be able to share that card. Once used,
such a card cannot be reused for 18 minutes, to prevent people from passing the card back for reuse by someone
else.

Once you have your MetroCard, walk over to the turnstile. There is an electronic device with a slot where you
“swipe” your card, at which point the device will give you an electronic message. All turnstiles are “right-handed”;
swipe in the device on the right side of the turnstile you are entering. The device will give you a message. If it says
“go”, walk through the turnstile. If it says “swipe again”, do so – most first-time users have a tendency to swipe too
slowly, and the machine cannot read that. Swipe the card again briskly. If ther eis a problem, see the clerk - she can
help you, and even buzz you into the subway if there is a problem with the card. If you have an unlimited MetroCard,
and swipe several times without success, and then the machine says “card used”, go see the clerk. Do NOT ever
jump over the turnstile because the card did not work -- and I cannot stress this strongly enough. If you do that, you
may be arrested, and I mean put in handcuffs, taken to a police station, fingerprinted, and possibly kept in a holding
cell overnight until you can be arraigned in court. In addition, when you are at a station with a “high-wheel”
turnstile, which is something like a revolving door, NEVER double-up on a single fare with anyone. BOTH people may
be arrested for the crime of “theft of service”.

Once you have entered the turnstile, you continue to the “platform”. In most cases, this is further downstairs --
although it may be directly in front of you. Keep in mind that some stations are large complexes, and have more
platform areas than one – just because you found a platform it does NOT mean it is the one you are looking for!!!
Look at the signs that show what lines stop there, and also whether that platform is for “uptown” or “downtown”
trains. Keep in mind that in Manhattan, “uptown” means NORTH of where you are standing, and “downtown” means
SOUTH. This is important – to get to 81st Street from 125th Street, you are going south, and want a downtown train.
However, to get to 81st Street from Pennsylvania Station, you are going north, and so to go to that same station
from a different starting point you want an uptown train.

The colors of the lines just refer to the streets in midtown Manhattan under which they travel, in order to keep the
map from being too confusing. Call the trains by their names or numbers, NOT their colors!!! There is no “blue line”,
for example, and trains with the same color may end up in very different places when they leave midtown
Manhattan. If you are heading uptown to Columbus Circle from 42nd Street and you board the blue-sign-carrying E
train because you think “the blue line goes to Columbus Circle”, you will never get to your destination, and will
instead find yourself heading off for Jamaica in Queens! Look for A, or D, or #6, not “blue”, “Orange”, or “green”
trains.

Because Manhattan – where the subway was first built – is a long and narrow island, the subway was designed to
carry people faster over longer distances than other city’s rapid transit systems were. As a result, unlike just about
every other rapid transit system in the world, the NYC subway has both local trains that stop at every station, and
express trains that use a different track and that skip many stations, just stopping at certain major stations.
Sometimes people mistake one for the other – for example, someone who wishes to travel up Central Park West
from Columbus Circle to the Museum of Natural History at 81st Street – which has its own station – might board a
northbound train, only to discover to his surprise that the next stop is not 72nd Street, as he thought it was, but is
instead 125th Street in Harlem. How did that happen? Well, the rider clearly did not realize that several lines may
use the same station, and instead of boarding the local “C” train, he took the express “A” instead.

How do you know what train stops at the platform? Look overhead – there are signs hanging from the ceiling that
tell you whether the train is “uptown” or “downtown”, or whether the E and C trains stop there, and at what hours -
and so on. All right, we know the E and C stop at this station – how do you know which one is pulling in now? Look at
the front of the train – there will be a big lighted sign that gives the train’s letter or number. In addition, on the side
of each car there is another sign that tells you what train it is – for example “A /Eighth Avenue Express/ to 207th
Street.”