Advertisement

Every NYC subway station now supports contactless payments

It’s the beginning of the end for MetroCards.

Brendan McDermid / reuters

New York’s MTA has finished rolling out contactless payments across all the subway stations and bus lines in all five boroughs. The OMNY (One Metro New York) system allows riders to tap-and-pay for fares with smartphones, smartwatches and contactless credit and debit cards.

MTA first introduced the contactless payments last May, but it's taken more than a year and half for the technology to make its way across New York’s transit system. In that time, MTA has seen more than 35 million taps using OMNY, MTA executive director Al Putre said in a press conference today. The next goal, he said, is to bring OMNY to New York’s rail lines, and introduce contactless OMNY cards, including reduced fare cards, to bring OMNY’s functionality up to par with current MetroCard offerings.

For now, though, riders still have the option of using their MetroCards, but that won’t always be the case. MTA plans to completely replace MetroCards with OMNY in 2023.