NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority says it is seeing steady growth in use of its OMNY open-loop fare payments system by customers–though overall open-loop payments remain small–as the agency continues its phased rollout of acceptance of contactless EMV bank cards and NFC Pays wallets.
The MTA disclosed usage results Tuesday in announcing it had completed a major phase of the project–installation of contactless EMV readers and validators on gates at more than 150 subway stations and on board more than 800 buses in Manhattan. That follows rollout of contactless acceptance at subway stations in the Bronx and on buses and rail in Staten Island, New York City’s two smallest boroughs or districts.
The two largest boroughs by population, Brooklyn and Queens, will be completed by the end of the year, vowed Al Putre, OMNY executive, at a press conference Tuesday. In it, he noted that the rollout was still on time and on budget. “Even the pandemic can’t stop the OMNY express,” he said, adding that with the Manhattan subway stations enabled, it means that just under three-quarters of New York City’s 472 subway stations are now live for contactless EMV payments.
