Public Transportation / Schedual Book? (Hudson, Howard: credit card, buy, bus)

[ajacques]

I'll be visiting NYC in June for the first time. I looked all over the MTA website and couldn't find anything about a schedual book. Do they not make one? In Orlando you can get a book that has all of the scheduals/maps, ect.

Also anyone know if I can MetroCard in the airport?

Any other constructive advice pertaining to the bus & subway is most welcome.

[checkmatechamp13]

Here's all the schedules: mta.info | MTA Schedules

The subway lines and a lot of the bus lines run frequently enough that you don't have to time yourself for a specific train/bus. This is especially true if you're going to spend most of your time in the touristy areas.

Here are the different maps (borough bus maps, subway maps, and the commuter rail maps): mta.info | MTA Maps

And yeah, I think they have a "Hudson News Stand" that sells MetroCards in the airport.

You have two choices: Pay-Per-Ride (PPR) and Unlimited. If you buy a PPR MetroCard with a value of over $10 (or refill in an increment of over $10), you get a 7% bonus, which reduces the fare you pay from $2.25 to $2.10.

A weekly pass is $29 and a monthly pass is $104. They used to have a daily pass, but they discontinued it. You need to ride 14 times on the weekly and 50 times on the monthly to come out ahead (or else, you're better off with Pay-Per-Ride)

[Chava61]

You can get individual schedules for the different subway & bus lines at the MTA website although as mentioned they aren't really necessary for most subway & bus lines (being that they are relatively frequent). You can pick up a subway map from any subway clerk (at the"token booth") at manned subway entrances.
You don't mention which airport you will be flying into. If you are arriving at JFK, you can take the Airtrain to connect to the subway system. When using the airtrain you pay at the end (either at the Jamaica station or at the Howard Beach station) and you can purchase a Metrocard (Pay-Per-Ride or Unlimited as already mentioned) at the machines before you exit using either cash, debit or credit card. The $5 fare for the Airtrain ride is not included if you decide that you want to get an unlimited Metrocard. (But you can use a Pay-Per-Ride Metrocard to pay for the $5 JFK Airtrain fare.)