NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The MTA announced Thursday the agency will stop providing service updates on Twitter.
The organization that oversees the largest subway system in the U.S. provided live updates of service interruptions and delays on the site. The main MTA account, @MTA, joined Twitter in December 2008.
“For the MTA, Twitter is no longer reliable for providing the consistent updates riders expect,” wrote the agency in a Tweet. “So as of today, we’re saying goodbye to it for service alerts and information.”
The MTA account will remain active for branding, but service updates will no longer be available on the site.
The decision to leave Twitter comes amid a spate of uncertainty for the platform following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the website and controversial changes to security settings — most notably verification, which is now a subscription service.
Twitter has also faced frequent technical issues after Musk fired over 80% of the staff at the company.
"The MTA does not pay tech platforms to publish service information and has built redundant tools that provide service alerts in real time,” said MTA Acting Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Rieara in a statement. “The MTA has terminated posting service information to Twitter, effective immediately, as the reliability of the platform can no longer be guaranteed."
The agency unexpectedly lost access to Twitter’s Application Programming Interface (API) on Thursday for the second time in two weeks, which may have led to the decision to abandon the platform, sources told 1010 WINS.
An API allows users to access certain developer tools to create more complex functions or find specified information.
A function like the automated service updates the MTA provided on its @NYCTSubway account might use Twitter’s API.
Other major institutions like NPR, Playbill and Balenciaga, as well as celebrities like Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg and Jim Carrey have all left Twitter amid the chaos at the company.
Commuters will still be able to get live service updates on MTA.info or the MyMTA app, according to the agency.
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