One Metro New York has set off launching an expansive underground network project.
This project has infiltrated New York City subways and insinuated itself into content yet apprehensive locals.
Unlike the MetroCard, New Yorkers will now be able to utilize a 7-day unlimited ride without paying up front with OMNY.
High traffic areas should expect to see an increase in OMNY machines and equal ridership. One Metro’s $645 million plan marks its territory with a digital wallet system that allows users to add funds before their trip with an OMNY account, or at a vending machine.
Riders will be able to pay for tickets at vending machines with cash or card, or by using their smartphone. Disposable single ride tickets will also be available at the cost of 35 cents on top of the cost of a $3.25 single ride ticket.
The city will distribute free OMNY Cards instead of MetroCards to the city’s 1.1 million public school’s students by 2025.
This comes as part of a push by the Metropolitan Transit Authority to get more transit riders using the tap-and-go fare payment system.
Students will be able to take up to four trips every day of the week, at any time of the day. These “retro cards” feature an enlarged barcode design and a lime green-white card for students.
People who purchase OMNY cards at retail stores will now get a $4 credit, MTA spokesperson Tim Minton told Gothamist.
The OMNY card that promises to give users a $4 credit when bought from a retail store, seeks to implement 30 machines in each borough.
These machines will give users access to a broadband of transportation networks, including the MTA and JFK AirTrain with the use of its digital wallet system.
Alternatively, the transit agency has introduced a “fare capping system,” which gives locals free weekly rides after 12 uses in one week.
The MTA has been installing OMNY vending machines at subway stations across the city in its campaign to phase out MetroCards as the fare payment system for subways and buses.
Although vending machines are now present in all boroughs, residents of Staten Island continue to urge the MTA to add more machines.
Fair Fares has launched a pilot program that will grant low income riders an opportunity to load benefits, including EBT, onto their OMNY cards.
1.5 million riders with a half-priced MetroCard will have a new OMNY Card mailed to them by the end of this year.
Using apps like MTA Train Time, the new system implements an integrated commuting experience for all major train lines—excluding PATH, which has launched their own system with the same developer as One Metro New York, Cubic.
The nostalgic MetroCard, which has been a staple of NYC since 1993, is phasing to OMNY with expected completion by 2026.
Riders can spot the new vending machines at popular stations such as Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center, Bowling Green, Fordham Road and Grand Concourse.
