New York subway tokens retired

The New York subway token is slipping into retirement, its 50-year career as the currency of city life ended by swipe card technology and fiscal problems.

Tokens were being rationed two to a customer yesterday, with sales expected to end a minute after midnight local time.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is eliminating the token to save the US$6 million ($11 million) a year it costs to manufacture and retrieve them.

Swipe cards were introduced in the late 1990s and are now in wide use. Token use has fallen to just 9 per cent of all fares.