Wow. Don't even need to though, the above response is unbelievable and cringeworthy as someone also in software engineering. Seems like a troll but it's all good and is par for the course on reddit.

This is a whole lot of opinion. The MTA has long since provided rationale and data supporting the claim that their antiquated fare collection system is costing a lot more than it should, and is cutting into profit. Service & maintenance on ancient ticketing machines is costly, who would have thought. Plus having to offer customer support at many stations in the event the machines fail, which they do and often.

Transitioning to a cashless and contactless fare system is plainly not "change for the sake of change" and this is just a nonsensical claim, considering better transit operators throughout the world have either already implemented it or are in the same process as the MTA.

It's fair (no pun) to raise eyebrows at the implementation cost, though. Just like everything else OMNY rollout was a huge one-off cost and massive boondoggle.

There are many articles like this one.

https://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/archives/610-mta-moves-toward-a-smart-way-to-pay-fares