$250,000 Subway Typo, Just days after hitting straphangers with a fare hike, the MTA threw away up to $250,000 worth of new subway maps because they displayed outdated fare information, The Post has learned.
“They’re very embarrassed about this,” a transit source said. “They were frantically calling the booths trying to get these maps back.”
“They’re very embarrassed about this,” a transit source said. “They were frantically calling the booths trying to get these maps back.”
Not all the bad maps were yanked from circulation, though.
A March 2013 map obtained by The Post mistakenly lists the minimum price for a pay-per-ride card as $4.50, the old rate. The new minimum is $5. In both instances, the price covers the cost of two fares.
Workers said an intercom call came over several days ago ordering agents to stop distributing the map with no explanation offered.
“It was an urgent message: Please don’t issue any maps to the customers,” recalled a station agent in Brooklyn.
“The money they waste is mind-boggling,” she said.
Eventually, word got out about the typo.
“They weren’t coming out with a new map because they were changing the map. They were coming out with a new map because they were changing the price,” said Paul Flores, an MTA station agent and union leader. “That was the sole purpose. And they couldn’t even get that right.”
Sources in Transit Workers Union Local 100 estimated 80,000 bad maps were printed at a cost up to $250,000.
New, corrected versions of the map won’t be in booths until March 15, sources said.
The MTA conceded it distributed at least two boxes of bad maps to commuters, but said most were pulled from station booths before they got out.
An MTA spokesman said he could not “get a figure” on how many maps were printed and at what cost.
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