New York City wants to bring subway tickets to the iPhone
You can already pay with Apple Pay (and other NFC systems) in the New York subway and on buses. In future, the entire ticket will be transferred to the iPhone.
iPhone as a credit card at a New York subway access barrier.
(Image: MTA)
After Los Angeles, Paris, Washington, Chicago, Portland, as well as various Japanese and Chinese cities, New York City is soon to receive support for public transportation tickets in Apple Wallet. This is reported by 9to5Mac, citing the public transportation company MTA, which mentions this in its latest annual report. According to the report, the so-called OMNY card is to be digitized by December 2025. Instead of a physical NFC card, an iPhone, or Apple Watch will then be sufficient. Google Wallet could also be supported.
Credit cards already work so far
New York City is one of the regions of the world where Tap to Pay (or Tap to Go) has already been implemented in the public transport system. All you need to do is hold an NFC-enabled credit card or an iPhone or Apple Watch with Apple Pay stored on it up to the access barrier reader. This is now also possible on buses. The problem: billing is confusing, as it is still not possible to call up a list of journeys made. The feature was removed by the MTA due to data protection issues.
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The new idea is now to bring OMNY, as the physical NFC ticket is called at the MTA, into the smartphone and smartwatch wallet. The ticket can then be topped up directly on the iPhone in the Wallet application and then “traveled”. The Wallet app displays the respective check-ins. There are also plans to integrate OMNY card management into the MTA application. Currently, using OMNY is rather unpleasant: you still can't buy the card at ATMs everywhere and have to top it up via a website using a credit card. At least invoices for charging processes can be created there.
No more physical card
In the future, this should all be possible via a wallet or app. This would eliminate the need to obtain a physical card. London, for example, could also learn from this: there is currently only the option of using the NFC-based physical Oyster Card, which also has to be topped up via the web or app – or alternatively Tap to Pay (which means “contactless” here) is used. After all, it is possible to track journeys by entering the credit card number, secured with a separate account.
The MTA now hopes to largely complete the OMNY project by the end of the year. However, not all the company's means of transportation are equipped for the system. The two commuter rail lines, Metro North and Long Island Railroad (LIRR) do not support OMNY. Instead, you have to buy your ticket via a separate app that relies on QR codes, which are then checked by the conductor.
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