MTA: MetroCards to remain for 18 more months

New York transit riders will be able to continue swiping their MetroCards for at least another year-and-a-half, the city’s subway chief said, as the MTA announced another milestone in the rollout of its new fare payment system.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Monday activated its first OMNY card vending machines at 10 subway stations as it phases out the 30-year-old MetroCard. Although the MTA once eyed pulling the plug on the 20th-century fare technology by the end of this year, New York City Transit President Richard Davey said he doesn’t “see the MetroCard being retired for probably another 18 months or so.”

“What do New Yorkers hate more than the status quo? Change. So retiring the MetroCard will take some time, for sure,” Davies said at a news conference at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal — home to nine subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road. “We’ll do that with both speed, but deliberation, because we want to make sure our customers are not confused as we roll this [new fare system] out.”

OMNY, an acronym for One Metro New York, allows transit riders to pay for their subway or bus trip with a tap of their digital wallets, debit cards or credit cards. The system, available throughout the city’s transit system, is already used by about half of all subway riders and 30% of bus riders.

The MTA has plans to eventually introduce OMNY on Nassau’s NICE Bus system and the LIRR. The railroad was originally scheduled to adopt OMNY by 2021.

The $772 million rollout of the “tap-and-go” fare technology has been beset with delays and cost overruns that MTA officials on Monday attributed to COVID-19 supply chain issues and project management problems. In April, the agency announced it was overhauling its OMNY management strategy, and would return to board members with an adjusted timeline and budget by the end of this year.

The activation of the first OMNY vending machines allows riders without bank accounts to use cash to buy OMNY fare cards. The machines will be tested over the next 30 days at the 10 stations in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens. If the machines work well, the MTA plans to roll out more of them throughout the system over the next year.

“What we’re learning is that, when you make it easy and convenient for people to tap and go with OMNY, they’re doing that,” MTA construction and development president Jamie Torres-Springer said.

Earlier this month, the MTA Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee (PCAC), which includes the Long Island Rail Road Commuter Council, issued several recommendations on how OMNY could be incorporated on the LIRR. The group called for the MTA to use the system to allow LIRR riders to automatically apply any potential discounts so riders pay the cheapest fare possible, and to allow riders to transfer between the LIRR and Metro-North.

“While we’re not happy that the OMNY rollout to the railroads has been delayed, the extra time presents a golden opportunity to rethink how fares and ticketing work around the region,” PCAC planning and advocacy manager Kara Gurl said at a railroad committee meeting last week. 

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.