Hillary Clinton swipes MetroCard - a few times - before hopping on subway

BRONX, New York (WABC) -- Hillary Clinton took the subway to the Bronx Thursday morning -- but not before running into one of commuters' biggest problems.

Before the Democratic presidential hopeful boarded the subway, it took her a few tries to swipe her MetroCard.

Clinton said she last rode the subway a year and a half, or two years ago.

When she finally made it through the turnstile and on board the train, along with a horde of media, Clinton worked the packed subway car as best she could.

WEB EXTRA: Watch video of the incident in the video player above

After two stops, she made her way off the subway and walked up 170th Street in the Bronx, to Munch Time, a diner near Townsend Avenue.

She stopped to shake hands and greet a baby in a stroller. "I need your vote!" she told one man.

The subway photo op was aimed at Sanders, who told the New York Daily News in an interview earlier this week that New Yorkers still used tokens to pay for the train. The system switched over to pre-paid MetroCards in 2003.

A Brooklyn native, Sanders left New York for Vermont in 1968.

Still, he's cast himself as a native son of the state, viewing the contest as a springboard into primaries out West later in the summer and a pathway to closing his more than 250-delegate gap with Clinton.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.