Full Rollout of Apple Pay Support for NYC Subways Delayed Until December

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been working to bring its OMNY contactless fare payment system to all buses and subway stations throughout the city, but the rollout of the system has been delayed due to the ongoing public health crisis, reports The Wall Street Journal.

apple pay nyc mta omny Cleaned 1
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 several more stations in early 2020. The rollout was meant to continue on in March and the following months, but installation of digital readers was stopped in late March.

Installation work resumed at the beginning of May, but the completion of OMNY has been delayed by about two months. It was supposed to be finished by October 2020, but now the full system won't be available until the end of December.

While work on OMNY subway support was paused for a couple of months, the bus rollout of the system was accelerated. The MTA now expects to offer contactless payment support on all Manhattan buses by the end of July, and citywide by the end of the year.

At the current time, Staten Island bus stations and about half of the 472 subway stations in New York support ‌Apple Pay‌ through OMNY.

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.

The New York MTA's goal is to bring contactless payment options to all of its subway stations and bus routes. MetroCards, which predate the OMNY system, will continue to work on subway and bus systems until 2023.

Right now, OMNY is limited to full-fare, pay-per-ride usage. Support for 7-day and 30-day fares won't be available until early 2021.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

iPhone Foldable Display Said to Feature iPad-Style 4:3 Aspect Ratio

Friday March 28, 2025 3:44 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming "iPhone Fold" will feature a foldable screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, according to a Chinese leaker who previously leaked the book-style device's display dimensions. The Weibo-based account Digital Chat Station claims that Apple will adopt a "roughly" 4:3 aspect ratio on the inner display in order to achieve consistency between the outer display, as well as to ensure parity...

Top Rated Comments

WordsmithMR Avatar
63 months ago
I find it remarkable how certain businesses are using the pandemic as to why they are NOT progressing in certain matters. I can't think of a better time for a company to implement this. Devs can easily WFH. Field teams have less to worry about in terms of crowds, meaning easier accessibility to terminals and turnstiles for updates/upgrades (with the exception of the very recent protests, which I am sure they will blame next)

Rolling this out should be an imperative. This will assist in mitigating the public health crisis in NYC. Less touching of high contact surfaces. Unbelievable this is not a priority.

My company took the this time to get a lot of work done that we would not have been able to in such an expedient way. Goes to show that some companies will use any excuse to be lazy, while other companies can assess a situation and turn it into a positive in order to thrive.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jaffy23 Avatar
63 months ago
On the lines it was installed before COVID - it worked very well. Also great for splitting payment cards between commuting and business travel.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ISprainedMyUvula Avatar
63 months ago
Predictable. The Apple Pay support for Chicago's Ventra system has been listed as "Coming Soon!" for over a year.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Wonderboyf1 Avatar
63 months ago
Ive always wondered why America is slow to adapt to contactless payment, as said above this has been standard in London Underground for years, and contactless payment which is essentially Apple Pay is widely available at retailers across Europe. I haven't used chip and pin for a long time.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Breaking Good Avatar
63 months ago

Here up north [in Canada], the ONLY place I have not tapped in the last couple months is Walmart, because they have not enabled for some reason. A couple other big stores that were holding out - Superstore and Home Depot have enabled contactless.
Walmart and some other large U.S. retailers were attempting to create their own version of Apple Pay so they were doing their best to not implement a competitor. Last I heard I believe the whole thing fell apart for them.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SAIRUS Avatar
63 months ago
Did they fix the issue with people accidentally getting charged an entry when they walked close to the scanners?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)