20 years after they changed subway tokens, the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s MetroCards can be changed by contactless cost choices to experience New York Metropolis’s subway and buses.
The playing cards, used to swipe into subway stations and onto buses, received’t be bought or given out after Dec. 31, the MTA defined in a launch Wednesday. Retailers will cease promoting the playing cards someday within the fall.
Prospects will have the ability to use their extant MetroCards into 2026; the ultimate acceptance date for the playing cards hasn’t been decided. In lieu of MetroCards, clients will have the ability to use the OMNY tap-and-go cost system.
Bodily OMNY playing cards will be purchased for $1 every at shops, on-line or in merchandising machines at sure subway stations. The MTA plans to increase the merchandising machines systemwide.
MTA riders are inspired to spend down their MetroCard balances, however the funds on every of the soon-to-be-defunct playing cards can be accessible to switch to OMNY for 2 years after the expiration date on the MetroCard.
Versus MetroCards, the place a rider prepays a lump sum value a set variety of journeys, OMNY fees per journey taken.
Every year, $40 million of fare funds on weekly and month-to-month MetroCards go unused, the MTA says. Along with saving clients these funds, the change is predicted to avoid wasting the company a minimum of $20 million yearly in MetroCard-related prices.
“Faucet-and-go — already the selection for 65% of our riders — will not be solely simpler and extra handy to make use of; it additionally opens the door for brand new reductions and promotions that’ll put a refund in riders’ pockets,” MTA CEO Janno Lieber mentioned.
MetroCards had been launched in 1993 and changed subway tokens in 2003.
