First Days of New York Subway Contactless Payment System Sees High Mobile Payment Adoption
6-10-2019
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has released data from the first weekend of its newly-implemented OMNY contactless payments system which found that 80 percent of MTA riders who used the tap-and-pay service did so using a mobile wallet on their smartphones.
The system, which is currently available at 16 stations on select subway and bus lines, accumulated 10,700 taps in its first weekend, MTA said according to Crain’s New York Business.
According to an MTA spokesperson, the authority projected 6,000-12,000 tap-ins per week during the implementation of the system. Despite the first weekend exceed the MTA’s expectations, the numbers still represent a fraction of total ridership.
The system is powered by Cubic Transportation and accepts mobile payments via smartphone as well as contactless-enabled credit and debit cards. MTA says the rollout to the entire system should be completed by the end of 2020. Though the traditional magnetic-stripe MetroCard will be phased out in 2023, MTA says a cash payment option will remain in some form.
“The significance of moving to a modern fare payment system cannot be overstated,” said New York City Transit President Andy Byford in an MTA press release. “Eventually, OMNY will help ease congestion in the system, reduce a host of technical challenges associated with the MetroCard, and make our system easier and more intuitive for the tens of millions of New Yorkers and tourists who ride with the MTA each year.”
Click here to read more in Crain’s New York Business.
About ETA
The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) is the global trade association representing more than 500 payments and technology companies. ETA members make commerce possible by processing more than $6 trillion in purchases in the US and deploying payments innovations to merchants and consumers. Learn more: www.electran.org.
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