[a_c_s]

Remember this system was rolled out in 1993, meaning any hardware/software combo started development before that. So the question is: do I believe it likely that a system developed before the internet became widespread has an archaic, non-networked way of handling software updates?

My answer is yes.

(Though for the sake of whomever maintains the system I'd certainly hope to be wrong about this! Either way, an update to all of these machines is likely not the trivial change the author presumes it to be.)

[LammyL]

I would expect this change to be easier than you say. If they increase fares, I am pretty sure they are able to set the new fares overnight on all their machines and not have a delayed rollout schedule. Imagine the chaos of they couldn't.