New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced that OMNY, the authority’s contactless fare payment system, recently surpassed 100 million taps. The figure marks an additional 25 million OMNY payments in the last two months alone. 

OMNY, or One Metro New York, debuted to the public in 2019 during a pilot phase at 19 subway stations and on Staten Island buses. The rollout of the contactless system was completed in December 2020, with all 472 subway stations and the entirety of the MTA’s 5,800 bus-fleet now equipped with approximately 15,000 OMNY readers.  

The OMNY readers process customer payments from smartphones, contactless bank cards, and wearable devices. In recent weeks, the system has recorded more than 600,000 taps a day. The nearly 17 million OMNY taps in June 2021 nearly tripled the number of taps from January 2021 (6.1 million). 

Customers from 153 countries have now paid their fare using OMNY. Nearly 80% of OMNY taps came on the subway, the other fifth of taps largely coming on buses, and a remaining fraction on Staten Island Railway. 

OMNY is set to completely replace the MTA’s MetroCard in 2023.