This tap-and-go system, launched in May 2019, seems to be a great success. With the goal of completely replacing the MetroCard by 2023, OMNY (One Metro New York) is already available in 77% of New York City’s subway stations. Zoom on this expanding system.
A new contactless sytem
First announced in February 2019 and then officially launched in May 2019, OMNY continues to invade the New York subway landscape. Available in 77% of New York’s metro stations, i.e. 365 out of 472, the system should cover the entire underground network by the end of the year.
What is OMNY ?
To briefly introduce OMNY (One Metro New York), it is a new contactless payment system, which allows users of the New York transportation network to purchase and validate their tickets directly from their smartphone or credit card. Based on the same technology as in London, OMNY aims at fully replacing the MetroCard by 2023. But it is not limited to the conventional transportation network, as it will also extend to the two cable car stations linking Manhattan to Roosevelt Island.
A use that is becoming more widespread
Since its launch in May 2019, OMNY has been successful: about 1.8 million different bank cards and smart devices have used OMNY readers. The market share of One Metro New York users has increased by almost 90% in the last 6 months. At the moment, OMNY corresponds to 9.5% of all payments made at the stations where the readers are installed. Just over 115,000 “tap-and-go” transactions are recorded per day in the New York metro, which means that OMNY has exceeded the 21 million usage mark. Its use has been democratized, in particular with the health crisis linked to COVID-19.
However, since contactless payment is only very recent in the United States, OMNY must encourage and explain to users how contactless payment works, in particular by producing explanatory videos.
With the goal of completely replacing the MetroCard by 2023, One Metro New York has a long way to go. When you consider that the subway is used every day by nearly 5.5 million users, OMNY still has a long way to go. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that with the generalization of contactless payment in the United States, OMNY will attract more and more users.
