But perhaps one of the greatest symbols of the outdated system is the MetroCard — the flimsy fare card that was introduced a quarter century ago.
Cities like London and Chicago have embraced tap cards and smartphone payments while New Yorkers still stand at turnstiles trying to swipe their MetroCard at the precise slow, but not-too-slow, speed to avoid the dreaded, “Please swipe again.”
Now New York is finally getting a modern “tap-and-go” fare system that will make other cities jealous.
The system, called OMNY, short for One Metro New York, started in May on a handful of subway and bus routes. Riders can tap a credit card or smartphone on an electronic reader and keep walking.
OMNY will be installed on the rest of the subway and bus system by the end of next year and on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, the two commuter railroads the authority operates, by 2021.
Subway riders are a notoriously cynical group, but early reviews have been positive.
“It works perfectly,” Greg Dorsainville, 39, of White Plains, New York, said as he tapped his Android phone on the turnstile at Grand Central Station on a recent morning. “It’s seamless.”
The switch to OMNY is a major moment for the subway and a rare bright spot for a system that continues to frustrate riders. The MetroCard system is obsolete and should have been retired years ago. OMNY is a glimpse at the future and an example of one effort to modernize the system.
“I’m amazed that we’re getting it done and it’s had no problems so far,” said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban planning at New York University. “This will make it easier and much faster to get to your train.”
The MetroCard has long bedeviled regular subway riders and famous ones, including Hillary Clinton, who had to swipe five times in a row to enter the subway during her presidential campaign in 2016.
Mayor Bill de Blasio tried multiple cards at a news conference this year — an effort that was mocked on Twitter. “It’s all in the wrist,” a rider advised.
When the MetroCard arrived in 1993, it was hailed as the “biggest change in the culture of the subways since World War II.” Its predecessor, the subway token, was officially retired in 2003, after it had been in use for 50 years.
Plans to replace the MetroCard over the past decade have been mired in delays — and costs have soared — even as other cities adopted more durable tap cards. Washington’s subway introduced its SmarTrip card two decades ago. Boston has the CharlieCard, San Francisco has the Clipper, and Hong Kong has the Octopus. But none of the transportation systems in these cities accept bank cards or smartphones yet.
In a surprising twist, New York took so long that it is now getting the best technology, known as contactless payments. Credit card companies and banks, like Chase and American Express, are mailing out special cards with an antenna that makes them compatible with OMNY readers. The readers also accept smartphones with “digital wallets” like Apple Pay.
OMNY is being put in place by Cubic, a payments company that was behind the MetroCard and that oversaw London’s fare system. The project is expected to cost about $644 million — $200 million more than what the authority estimated in 2016.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the subway and buses, is starting OMNY in phases, with the readers currently available on buses on Staten Island and at subway entrances on the 4, 5 and 6 lines between Grand Central Station in Manhattan and the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Subway officials are taking a slow, cautious approach after other cities have struggled with hiccups like defective readers and riders getting double charged. For now, riders can pay for one trip at a time at the full fare of $2.75. Monthly and weekly passes will not be available through OMNY until 2021.
The agency will offer a physical OMNY card in 2021, and the MetroCard will meet its demise in 2023. Subway officials say there will always be a cash option for New Yorkers who do not have bank cards or smartphones.
The idea has progressed in fits and starts. A decade ago, the authority’s chairman Jay Walder, who had instituted the Oyster card in London, wanted to bring “tap-and-go” cards to New York. Officials wanted to phase out the MetroCard as early as 2012, but it did not happen, in part because credit card companies were slow to make their cards compatible.
The authority said in 2016 that it was soliciting bids from companies to install the system and would award a contract by the end of that year. That did not happen until October 2017.
The project cost rose by more than $200 million from an earlier estimate, transit officials said, because the scope grew to include things like incorporating the commuter railroads and funding for Cubic to run the “back end” technology that riders do not see.
Matt Cole, an executive at Cubic, said that OMNY’s launch had prompted banks to issue cards with contactless technology.
“Although other cities did have smart cards earlier than New York, in many ways New York has leapfrogged other cities in the world that have smart cards but not contactless,” Cole said in an interview.
Riders are already using the technology more than transit officials expected. More than 18,000 people used OMNY on a single weekday in June, according to the authority. The taps have come from credit cards issued around the world, representing 82 countries.
Al Putre, an MTA executive overseeing OMNY, said about 80% of the transactions were made with digital wallets on smartphones, not bank cards. Putre joined the transit agency in 1987 and helped oversee the introduction of the MetroCard.
“Not everyone has a contactless card,” he said. “Everyone has a smartphone.”
OMNY has other potential benefits, subway officials said: reducing crowds at ticket machines; allowing for all-door boarding on buses to speed up service; saving millions of dollars to maintain the MetroCard system; and helping reduce fare evasion which some riders blame broken ticket machines for.
Subway officials said they would protect riders’ personal information and that OMNY adheres to industry standards, like encrypting transaction data. The agency will not track customers, officials said, and will use anonymous data to analyze rider patterns.
At Grand Central Station, most subway riders were still using their MetroCards on a recent morning, even if they had trouble swiping. The OMNY readers confused some visitors who tried to tap them with their MetroCard. A subway worker stood to the side offering advice.
Ryan Frere used OMNY for the first time while visiting from Boston.
“It was super easy,” he said. “It’s a lot better than getting a ticket from the machine.”
Frere, 41, who works in the payments industry, said OMNY was easier for out-of-towners who did not know which subway pass to buy.
“It saved me some time,” he said. “I didn’t have to worry about figuring out how much to pay.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.