Old Habits Die Hard

The Mexico City Metro system recently introduced rechargeable electronic cards, plunging its users into modernity. The yellow and white cards can be bought at the ticket counter for 10 pesos, and charged and recharged with as much or as little credit as you like.

The cards have several advantages over the 40-year-old system of paper tickets with a magnetic strip. For one, when the turnstiles have eaten as many tickets as they can before being emptied, the electronic cards will go on functioning. As a result, there are often empty turnstiles for cardholders while people still using tickets queue up at one or two that haven’t filled up.

Another advantage is that you don’t have to buy tickets as often, with the risk of losing them, or putting them through the wash-spin-dry cycle, which few survive.

When you hold the card in front of the reader, it beeps, a green light goes on, and the machine tells you how much credit you have left. And this is where your (my) claim to modernity ends, as you make a mental note to yourself how many “tickets” you have left.

Also see:

Getting Around Mexico City