Commuters can now use Apple Pay, along with other contactless payments systems, to pay for their travel at New York’s Penn Station.
That’s because the subway station has adopted the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s OMNY contactless fare payment system. The 34th Street-Penn Station is one of the busiest transport hubs in North America. This should help make travel from there a little bit more bearable.
Penn Station is just the latest station to adopt the OMNY contactless fare system. By the end of December, the technology will be available to use at 85 New York City subway stations in total. Recently, OMNY revealed that it has been used more than 4 million times by customers. That’s far in excess of projections.
“Today is yet another momentous occasion in the continued rollout of OMNY, the MTA’s game-changing contactless fare payment system,” said NYC Transit President Andy Byford. “Penn Station is one of the system’s busiest subway stations and will allow hundreds of thousands of commuters the opportunity to tap and ride using a device or contactless card of their own choosing — including customers arriving on the Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit, and Amtrak — who connect with the subway system here at Penn Station.”
Apple Pay (and more) at Penn Station
96 OMNY readers went live this week at 18 turnstiles serving various subway lines at Penn Station. OMNY readers accept contactless cards from companies including Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. It also accepts Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Fitbit Pay.
Right now, the OMNY system only lets customers pay for full-fare, pay-per-ride journeys. Unlimited ride passes and discounted tiers are still not available. However, these will roll out in 2020. OMNY also plans to roll out the OMNY card in the OMNY app. The OMNY project should be completed in 2023.
