Swipe and Let Go

"You will not see the final swipe this weekend. The MetroCard will continue to work for months to come, till the last batch of cards hits its expiration date. But after December 31, you won't be able to buy or refill one, and a day or a week or a month later, most of those cards will be tossed, recycled, or stashed in a drawer as bits of memorabilia. Yes,"

"OMNY is surely better at most things than its predecessor. Given the good-God-don't-touch-that aspect of subway riding, its contactlessness is a big improvement. (Let us pause here for a moment to recall the epitome of subway disgustingness, the token-sucker.) Nobody will miss the swipe, and especially not SWIPE AGAIN AT THIS TURNSTILE. Until you developed the knack of that particular wrist-forward gesture, it was frustrating, often baffling visitors and infrequent subway riders."

"The turnstile mechanisms were tough as nails, but the magnetic-card reader required a frequent scurry of maintenance. The swipe slots had to be cleaned daily by a station agent, for example, because the heads picked up steel dust from the rails, and they had to be disassembled and deep-cleaned every couple of weeks or so. The only downside for most of us ( some gripers aside) is one bit of user experience:"

The MetroCard will remain usable until individual cards expire but cannot be bought or refilled after December 31. Many cards will be discarded, recycled, or kept as souvenirs, and a commemorative blue card and Transit Museum exhibition mark the end of its 31-year run. OMNY, a touchless fare system, offers clear convenience and reduces the hygiene and mechanical issues tied to swiping. Swipe readers required frequent maintenance and cleaning due to steel dust and wear. One remaining user-experience drawback is that OMNY transactions do not display transfer information the way MetroCard did.

Read at Curbed