New York City’s Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) has announced that Apple Pay and other contactless payment methods are now accepted at all stations and on all buses.
Writing on Twitter on Thursday that “contactless fare payment is the best way to ride in 2021,” the MTA announced that the new terminals supporting Apple Pay and other contactless methods are now available at every subway station, on all busses and across all five boroughs. With the OMNY system, riders can now tap-and-pay for fares with compatible NFC devices such as their phones, watches and contactless credit/debit cards.
MTA executive director Al Putre said in a press conference that OMNY will come next to New York’s rail lines, with other planned features contactless OMNY cards and reduced fare cards. All told, the MTA is planning to completely replace MetroCards with OMNY in 2023.
Before the announcement, Apple Pay used to enjoy limited support from the MTA with Apple’s Express Transit feature working at some stations since the end of May 2019. With today’s announcement, all subway lines and bus stations now support Express Transit for quick contactless payment via a simple tap of an iPhone or Apple Watch over a turnstile.
This is especially convenient because the Express Transit feature doesn’t require you to authenticate with Touch ID, Face ID, passcode or your Apple Watch — you literally don’t need to pull the phone out of your pocket at all.
For details on Express Transit, be sure to read our tutorial.