These New Yorkers are among the many final of a vanishing breed who swear by the swipe or the dip of a MetroCard.
With the MTA in a transition to full OMNY tap-and-go know-how, transit officers mentioned Monday that one-third of final month’s 146 million subway and bus riders stay MetroCard loyalists — even with gross sales of the yellow and blue fare playing cards set to finish Dec. 31.
“It’s not that we can’t accept change,” Margoth Moreno, 60, informed THE CITY after swiping her MetroCard Tuesday on the 96th Avenue station alongside the 1, 2 and three traces. “It’s just that we don’t want to make the change — like me.”
Even because the holdouts understand the MetroCard’s days are numbered, they maintain on to the plastic fare playing cards that have been initially launched in January 1994 at two Decrease Manhattan stations because the eventual successor to subway tokens, which took their remaining turnstile drops in Could 2004.
“I’m just not where I need to be yet in terms of feeling comfortable with OMNY,” mentioned Juan Mendez, 49, who swiped his well beyond a turnstile at Occasions Sq.-Forty second Avenue. “The MetroCard is a hard habit to break.”
Transit officers acknowledged as a lot throughout a sequence of shows concerning the MTA’s prolonged transition to tap-and-go fare funds, which may be made via cellular units, financial institution playing cards or bodily OMNY playing cards bought in station merchandising machines and at some shops.
“We hear from some of our customers, a small share, that having a physical fare media card is important to them,” mentioned Jessie Lazarus, MTA deputy chief of business ventures. “And so these customers are going to keep using a MetroCard until an OMNY machine reaches their station and we pull the MetroCard machine out.”
That course of hit a milestone over the weekend in Queens, when the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue/74th Avenue, Court docket Sq. and twenty first Avenue-Queensbridge stations grew to become the primary to be stripped completely of MetroCard merchandising machines eliminated in favor of machines that permit riders to purchase or refill OMNY playing cards.
A rider makes use of a MetroCard machine subsequent to an OMNY one on the Brooklyn Bridge station, April 30, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Greater than 670 OMNY merchandising machines are presently put in in 325 stations, in line with the MTA, which is aiming to have 40% fewer machines with the brand new system than it does with MetroCards, given the elevated variety of methods to pay for rides.
“We’re teaching customers how to buy and reload OMNY cards at these vending machines,” Lazarus mentioned. “But we’re also informing them that with OMNY cards, now they can reload their cards online or at one of our local business retail partners when picking up a prescription at the pharmacy or buying milk at the bodega.”
The MTA has mentioned it expects to save lots of at the least $20 million a 12 months in merchandising machine repairs and MetroCard manufacturing and distribution.
The Final Days
On the Jackson Heights hub on Tuesday morning, customer support staff guided confused riders making an attempt to acclimate to utilizing OMNY for the primary time or shopping for tap-and-go playing cards from new-look merchandising machines.
Nonetheless, skeptics abound among the many devoted MetroCard customers.
“I would rather have the MetroCard than the OMNY because I tried it before and I had a lot of problems,” mentioned Roberto Gonzalez, 70, after swiping into the station with a MetroCard.
Transit officers on Monday highlighted OMNY’s rising utilization, declaring how tap-and-go utilization within the subway hit 70% in March — up from 43% two years earlier.
Equally, the share of tap-and-go fare funds on buses was at 59% in March, a 33-point enhance from April 2023.
“They do this because it’s easy and it saves them time and it saves them money,” Lazarus mentioned. “They’re not waiting at a vending machine line or worrying about how many trips to prepay on a MetroCard.”
Luis Ortiz is among the many third of New York Metropolis Transit riders who stays a MetroCard loyalist, April 29, 2025. Credit score: Jose Martinez/THE CITY
In line with the MTA, 85% of riders who pay the complete $2.90 fare use tap-and-go, in contrast with 56% of those that are paying diminished fares. A 12 months in the past, the MTA mentioned these figures have been at 75% and seven%.
MTA officers mentioned that factors to advantages that accompany OMNY, such because the fare-cap measure that lets riders journey totally free as soon as they use the identical machine or fare card to pay for 12 rides inside the course of any seven-day interval.
“This customer base has just been buying Metrocards and paying $2.90 every time, no matter how frequently they’re traveling,” Lazarus mentioned. “But now, just by virtue of switching to tap and go, they’ll never spend more than $34 in seven days, no pre-planning required.”
The pay-as-you-go technique over seven days contrasts with the seven-day limitless journey MetroCard, which prices $34 regardless of what number of occasions a rider makes use of it.
However, some holdouts informed THE CITY they may journey with the MetroCard till they not can.
“I used the token until the very last day,” Luis Ortiz, 62, mentioned on the 96th Avenue cease, including that has by no means used OMNY. “I’ll probably stick with the MetroCard until the last day, too.”
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