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Read the press release here.

MTA Will Not Refund Unlimited MetroCards After Sandy Shut Down Subways

By Aidan Gardiner | November 13, 2012 12:01pm

NEW YORK CITY — Unlimited MetroCard users will have to eat the cost for the rides they missed when Hurricane Sandy forced the MTA to shut down the transit system for several days, authority officials said. 

The MTA has declined to provide any refunds or other kinds of relief to riders who bought their monthly unlimited-ride MetroCards prior to the storm, only to have them rendered useless when the system shut down. 

Processing refunds would create a logistical nightmare for an agency already overworked repairing the subway system that was slammed by the storm, an MTA spokesman said Tuesday. 

The authority did not refund riders when it temporarily shut down the system for Hurricane Irene last year, but it did provide unlimited MetroCard users an additional three days of rides following the 2005 transit strike. 

Riders were able to use MTA transit free of charge for two days once limited service resumed three days after Hurricane Sandy

But many straphangers, including those isolated in areas without electricity, waited longer for their subway lines to resume service.