New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is still transitioning from the 30-year-old MetroCard payment system for buses and subways to the new OMNY contactless payment platform.
All stations and buses now have both OMNY and MetroCard readers, but that will eventually change and the MetroCard will supposedly be gone by the end of 2023.
Whenever I write about OMNY, New Yorkers chime in about all of the drawbacks of the new system and things that are missing. Some of them have already been addressed, like when the MTA added fare capping to OMNY. This capped the total fare for the week to be no more than the previous cost of a 7-day unlimited MetroCard. There are still limitations with OMNY, as you have to remember to use the same card or device every time and the week currently only runs from Monday to Sunday. Tourists or people without a regular weekly schedule can end up paying more than they did with the MetroCards.
Other riders who were entitled to reduced fares had also been left out of the new system, but a recent change to OMNY lets many residents get rid of their MetroCards.
OMNY has integrated Reduced-Fare pricing for riders who are 65 or older or who have qualifying disabilities. These passengers were previously issued a MetroCard that charged $1.35 per ride, which is 1/2 the base fare price.
To get Reduced-Fare OMNY, you have to go to the MTA website and link your Reduced-Fare MetroCard to your OMNY account.
You currently need to link a contactless credit or debit card, or a digital wallet on a phone or wearable device, to use Reduced-Fare OMNY. The Fare Capping system works for Reduced-Fare passengers who only have to pay for 12 rides from Monday-Sunday.
For those who don’t want to link a payment card to an OMNY account or don’t have a contactless credit or debit card, the MTA will make Reloadable Reduced-Fare OMNY cards available in 2023.
This is another step of bringing in all of the programs from the MetroCard system and making them available on OMNY.
However, there are still those who need to keep using MetroCards. One affected group are students, which the MTA says have already received half-price MetroCards so there’s no need to issue them OMNY cards until the 2023-2024 school year.
Another group left out is those who receive 1/2 price fares from Fair Fares NYC, a city program created to help New Yorkers with low incomes manage their transportation cost. There are rumors that Fair Fares will be coming to OMNY in 2023 but there’s been no public announcement. The MTA isn’t saying when or how Fair Fares NYC will work with OMNY, as the city runs the program.
Cover Photo from MTA OMNY website.
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