OMNY

OMNY readers at Canal Street, 2019

In 2016, the MTA announced that it would begin designing a new contactless fare payment system to replace the MetroCard.[11][12][13] The replacement system was initially planned for partial implementation in 2018 and full implementation by 2022.[14] In October 2017, the MTA started installing eTix-compatible electronic ticketing turnstiles in 14 stations in Manhattan. The eTix system, already used on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, allows passengers to pay their fares using their phones. The system would originally be for MTA employees only.[15]

On October 23, 2017, it was announced that the MetroCard would be phased out and replaced by a contactless fare payment system also by Cubic, with fare payment being made using Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Samsung Pay, debit/credit cards with near-field communication enabled, or radio-frequency identification cards.[16][17] The announcement called for a phased rollout, culminating in the discontinuation of the MetroCard by 2023.[17] The replacement fare system was criticized because the new turnstiles could be hacked, thereby leaving credit card and phone information vulnerable to theft.[18]

Staten Island buses were among the first to utilize OMNY readers[19]

In June 2018, the MTA revised the timeline for implementation of the then-unnamed new payment system. The first stage of implementation would take place in May 2019. All subway stations would receive OMNY readers by October 2020, in preparation for the launch of a prepaid OMNY card by February 2021.[20][21]^:13 OMNY vending machines would be installed by March 2022,[21]^:13 and the MetroCard would be discontinued in 2023.[22]

Initially, there were disagreements about what the payment system should be called; some executives wanted a "traditional" name that resembled the MetroCard's name, while others wanted more unusual names. Possible names included "MetroTap", "Tony", "Liberty" and "Pretzel". The name "OMNY" was eventually chosen as being "modern and universal".[23][24] The OMNY name was announced in February 2019.[25][26][27] "OMNY" is an acronym of "One Metro New York," intended to signify its eventual broad acceptance across the New York metropolitan area.[27]

An internal trial launched in March 2019, involving over 1,100 MTA employees and 300 other participants. Over 1,200 readers were installed in subway stations and buses for the public trial, and the OMNY.info website was created.[21]^:14–15[28] Weeks before the beginning of the public launched, $85.4 million had been spent on the project, out of a total budget of $644.7 million.[21]^:14 OMNY launched to the public on May 31, 2019 on Staten Island buses and at 16 subway stations.[lower-alpha 3] At first, OMNY only supported single-ride fares paid with contactless bank cards; mobile payments such as Apple Pay and Google Pay were also accepted, and free transfers between OMNY-enabled routes were available with the same transfer restrictions placed upon the MetroCard.[29][30][31] In June and July 2019, Mastercard offered "Fareback Fridays" to promote the system, where it would refund up to two rides made using OMNY on Fridays.[32][33] The OMNY system reached one million uses within its first 10 weeks and two million uses within 16 weeks.[34]^:58 On one day in June, 18,000 taps were recorded from bank cards issued in 82 countries.[35]

In November 2019, the MTA announced its first expansion. Over the following month, 48 additional stations would be outfitted with OMNY readers the following month, thereby bringing the system to all five boroughs,[lower-alpha 4] and by January 2020 the system would then be expanded to Manhattan bus routes.[34]^:57 Furthermore, the MTA would begin launching pilot programs on Select Bus Service, the city's bus rapid transit system, and add self-service features.[34]^:60 By then, over 3 million riders with bank cards from 111 countries had used OMNY.[36][37][38][34]^:58 According to an internal MTA report, these riders had used over 460,000 unique payment methods between them, or about 2,000 new payment methods per day.[34]^:58 In January 2020, MTA officials announced that OMNY had seen its 5-millionth use, and also that it would expand to 60 more subway stations by the end of the month.[lower-alpha 4] In addition, the MTA launched a marketing campaign for OMNY.[39][40] After another expansion the next month, there were over 180 OMNY-equipped stations and OMNY had been used over 7 million times.[41] This grew to 10 million uses by the time yet another expansion was announced in March.[42] However, in late March 2020, the remaining OMNY installations were postponed until June due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.[43]

Timeline

Map of OMNY-equipped stations and lines, June 2020

This list excludes other services that are also accessible via free transfer. A green row indicates that the particular line has fully implemented OMNY.

Line	Stations	Primary services	Date
IRT Eastern Parkway Line	Borough Hall/Court Street, Nevins Street, Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center	​​​	May 2019[29][30]
IRT Lexington Avenue Line	Bowling Green to Grand Central–42nd Street	​​
Staten Island local and express bus routes
BMT Fourth Avenue Line	86th Street/4th Avenue		December 2019[36][37]
BMT/IND Archer Avenue lines	Sutphin Boulevard–Archer Avenue–JFK Airport	​​​
IND Eighth Avenue Line	34th Street–Penn Station	​​
IRT 42nd Street Shuttle	Times Square and Grand Central[lower-alpha 5]
IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line	South Ferry/Whitehall Street to 59th Street–Columbus Circle	​​
IRT Jerome Avenue Line	138th Street–Grand Concourse to Woodlawn
IRT Lexington Avenue Line	Lexington Avenue/51st–53rd Streets to 125th Street	​​
Staten Island Railway	St. George and Tompkinsville[lower-alpha 6]	Staten Island Railway
IND Sixth Avenue Line	47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center to Broadway–Lafayette Street	​​​	January 2020[40]
IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line	66th Street–Lincoln Center to Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street	​​
IND Eighth Avenue Line	Inwood–207th Street to High Street	​​​​
Multiple	Jay Street–MetroTech	​​​​
	Seventh Avenue	​​
IRT White Plains Road Line	Third Avenue–149th Street to Wakefield–241st Street	​	February 2020[41][44][45]
IRT Pelham Line	Third Avenue–138th Street to Pelham Bay Park	​
Manhattan bus routes			March 2020[42][46]
IND Fulton Street Line	Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets to Euclid Avenue	​
IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line	Wall Street and Clark Street	​
IRT Dyre Avenue Line	Morris Park to Eastchester–Dyre Avenue
IRT Eastern Parkway Line	Hoyt Street	​
IRT Flushing Line	Mets–Willets Point and Flushing–Main Street	​
IRT Lenox Avenue Line	Central Park North–110th Street to Harlem–148th Street	​
IRT Flushing Line	34th Street–Hudson Yards to 111th Street	​	June 2020
BMT Astoria Line	Queensboro Plaza to Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard	​
BMT Broadway Line	49th Street to Fifth Avenue–59th Street	​​​
BMT Franklin Avenue Line	Prospect Park to Park Place

At a presentation in May 2019, the MTA's Capital Program Oversight Committee specified the following items to be implemented at an unspecified future date: launch a mobile app, add OMNY readers to Access-a-Ride paratransit vehicles, and add readers on Select Bus Service buses to support all-door boarding.[21]^:17 However, the committee expressed concerns that some bank cards would not be accepted, and that OMNY transactions could take longer than MetroCard transactions, increasing crowding at turnstiles.[21]^:21' Unlimited ride options will be available sometime between late 2020 and February 2021, while additional stations will be announced at the middle of every month until all stations have OMNY readers. All-door boarding at Select Bus Service routes with OMNY would begin sometime in early 2020.[47]

As of 2019, the MTA also plans to use OMNY in the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad over "the next several years".[48] In June 2019, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced it was in talks with the MTA to implement OMNY on the PATH by 2022.[49] There are no plans for OMNY to be used on NJ Transit, which plans to implement another new fare payment system with a different contractor.[50]

The oversight group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) has stated concerns about the lack of privacy regulation in the OMNY system, specifically that trip data may be used by the New York City Police Department for police surveillance or might be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to track undocumented immigrants.[51][52][53]

In February 2020, the MTA warned that some customers using Apple Pay's Express Transit feature might be accidentally double-charged if they were using a MetroCard. This occurred when riders unintentionally had their phones in proximity to the OMNY readers. At that point, the issue was relatively rare, having been reported 30 times.[54]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to OMNY.

• Official website
  • Current stations