Installation of MTA’s contactless fare system remains on schedule

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has announced that the installation of the new contactless OMNY fare payment system remains on schedule to be completed by the end of the year at all subway stations and on all MTA-operated buses.

The news comes despite more than six-weeks of delayed worked due to COVID-19-related mandates that forced non-essential projects in subway stations to be temporarily put on hold.

Additionally, officials announced that subway and bus installations are being accelerated beyond the original schedule, with all Manhattan SBS buses being activated with OMNY next month and nine additional subway stations now having been activated ahead of schedule. More than half of all subway stations are now equipped with OMNY, with 2,480 OMNY readers systemwide. The timeline for installation of OMNY hardware for all-door boarding has also been expedited, with all buses set to be equipped with OMNY readers by the end of 2020 as well.

“Not even a pandemic will prevent us from completing this project on time and on budget,” said OMNY Program Executive, Al Putre. “I work with the greatest team I’ve ever been a part of in more than three decades of service at the MTA and I’m confident we’ll reach our goals despite the historic pandemic that forced us to shut down work for 43 days beginning in March. We’ve spent that time strategising about how we can still get this done in a post-COVID-19 work environment, and have accelerated many aspects of the schedule. Our recently redeployed crews, using revised work protocols with requisite PPE, have been fantastic thus far.”

The activation of the contactless OMNY readers at the Queensboro Plaza and Hunters Point Av stations in Queens marks the completion of the Seven Line and surpasses the halfway point in the MTA’s effort to activate OMNY at all 472 subway stations in the system. OMNY installation work began just over a year ago when the MTA launched the new contactless payment system at 16 stations in a public pilot that lasted approximately six months. Work ramped up in November, with hundreds more stations becoming OMNY equipped in the last six months.