After suffering substantial delays, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has completed its rollout of Apple Pay support to all buses and subway stations in the city via its OMNY contactless fare payment system.
With the OMNY contactless payment system, riders are able to hold an iPhone or Apple Watch near a contactless reader to pay their fare with no authentication necessary, allowing for speedy passage through public transit hubs.
OMNY tap-and-go fare payments with Apple Pay Express Transit support became available at one of New York City's major transportation hubs, Penn Station, back in December 2019, followed by a number of other stations in early 2020. The rollout was originally intended to continue, but installation of the new digital readers was paused in late March, delaying completion until December 2020.
The New York installation has now been completed network-wide, according to an OMNY announcement.
It’s OMNY Time—everywhere! Every bus
Every subway station
Every borough Contactless fare payment is the best way to ride in 2021. Learn more and see if OMNY is right for you 👇 https://t.co/HOjO7m6Sjf pic.twitter.com/q66XOsbcoB — MTA. Wear a Mask. Stop the Spread. (@MTA) December 31, 2020
At this time, OMNY only works for individual rides and it is not yet possible to pre-pay for an unlimited ride pass. MetroCards, which predate the OMNY system, will continue to work on subway and bus systems until 2023, when it will be fully replaced by OMNY.
