The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced major upcoming milestones in the authority’s transition from MetroCard to OMNY, the contactless fare payment system, with a major push to expand the reach of OMNY to include all customer groups by the end of 2024 including students, Reduced-Fare, Fair Fares, Access-a-Ride, and pre-tax commuter benefit customers, with substantial completion of the rollout across subway, bus, and paratransit services slated for the end of 2025.

The rollout will also include upgrades and integrations with the award-winning TrainTime application for railroad ticketing and the implementation of modernized ticket machines on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Metro-North Railroad, which will be substantially completed in early 2026.

OMNY Rollouts

All New York City school students will receive student-specific OMNY cards instead of MetroCards at the start of the 2024-25 school year in September.

OMNY pilots have also been launched for select paratransit and pre-tax commuter benefit customers with a wide rollout to both customer bases expected by the end of 2024. All existing Reduced-Fare MetroCard customers, totaling more than 1.5 million customers, will receive an OMNY card mailed to them by the end of 2024.

On LIRR and Metro-North, new modern ticket vending machines will be introduced across the commuter rail system by contractor Scheidt & Bachmann, with TrainTime continuing to service customers for contactless digital payment through contractor Masabi.

“By treating OMNY as the megaproject that it is, we have turned a corner on delivering its benefits to all categories of customers,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “The new approach is going to give users the sense of interoperability they expect, while limiting MTA’s contractor risk and saving millions of dollars.”

Fare Payment Programs

On May 1, the MTA and New York City Department of Social Services (DSS) announced the official launch of the Fair Fares pilot on OMNY.

Fair Fares customers registered for the pilot can now use OMNY cards to pay via tap-and-go on New York City subways and buses. The pilot is scheduled to run for 90 days, which will allow the agency to collect feedback from participants, evaluate the pilot, and finalize a plan for the full transition to OMNY across all Fair Fares customers at a later date.

Additionally on April 29, the authority announced the completion of its OMNY Card Vending Machine rollout pilot program. To date, MTA crews have activated 70 machines at 37 stations with more activations scheduled systemwide as card vending machines are expected to be in all subway stations by mid-2025 — providing additional ways all full fare customers with an OMNY card can reload their cards.

OMNY Growth

New York City Transit customers are choosing contactless fare payment with a customer satisfaction rate of 85%.

More than three quarters (76%) of regular fare customers are now tapping in with OMNY, a 10% increase in overall market share in the past year. Nearly 70% of OMNY customers tap into the system with their smart device with the remaining using debit, credit, or OMNY card.

Due to the success of TrainTime, the next-generation mobile app on the commuter railroads, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad will continue to build on that platform adding full flexibility for future fare offerings such as joint fare products, pay-as-you-go discounts and easier ticket purchase and validation.

TrainTime has earned the trust of riders with over 50 points of market share growth since October 2017, collecting 70% of all railroad revenue, 91% customer satisfaction rating, and a 4.9 star rating in the Apple Store.