LIRR Payment System on Its Way Out

It’s only a matter of time before a rather old-fashioned metal box that collects parking fees disappears for good from the Huntington train station.

The town is inviting companies to offer proposals for the installation of muni-meters, the centralized system of parking meters, to replace the current pay station, as well as possibly expand into the downtown area.

The use of the muni-meters downtown depends on the outcome of a wider parking study. But regardless of what happens downtown, the metal fee repository is at the LIRR station on the chopping block.

Currently, customers have to insert cash through a slot numbered to match a parking space, often using a metal key attached to the box, to ensure the bills land in the container and not on the sidewalk. It can be a slow process as people try to gauge how many bills, and how wadded up they can be, and still make it through the slot.

 The box warns them to make sure the money clears the slot to ensure payments are  considered completed.

Proposals for the muni-meter week are due back on April 26.