MTA discontinues real-time Twitter alerts citing unreliability.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has ended its real-time service alerts on Twitter due to the platform's new policy of requiring a fee to use its application programming interface (API). The MTA has built redundant tools that provide service alerts in real-time, including apps, email alerts, text messages, and screens in stations, trains, and buses. The MTA's access to Twitter through its API has already been interrupted twice in the past two weeks. Customers can still tweet at all MTA accounts and the agency will respond.