The MTA opened its first “customer service centers,” the expanded successor to the token booth.
Marc A. Hermann / MTA
Buying an OMNY card and dealing with transit troubles should get a little easier for straphangers as the MTA plans to open 15 additional customer service centers throughout NYC, agency officials said on Monday.
The MTA made the announcement at a July 28 NYC Transit and Bus committee meeting. The stations positioned to get the new centers so far include E. 180th Street on the 2 and 5 trains; Grand Central on the 4, 5, 6 trains; Far Rockaway – Mott Avenue on the A train; and Rockaway Parkway on the L train.
MTA officials said each new center will have station agents on site to help customers with OMNY, signing up for reduced fare programs, and “many other functions. ”
“As we prepare to no longer issue or refill MetroCards come December, we want to ensure that we are doing all that we can to provide the best customer service to help our riders fully transition to OMNY and gain any additional support needed,” said MTA New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow.
The new centers will open at the start of 2026, though an exact date has not been announced.
MTA customer service centers grow with OMNY rollout
In 2023, the MTA opened new customer service centers in all five boroughs as OMNY usage expanded. The centers are repurposed station booths with a modern look, complete with enhanced lighting, canopies, and wrapped signage intended to make them more inviting.
“We’ve heard great things from our customer service centers, our customers and our workforce, so this investment is intentional and it’s the right thing to do,” Crichow said.
The price tag for the new centers was not immediately known.
The first set of customer service centers opened in February 2023 at Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue, Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center, and 161st Street-Yankee Stadium. Centers are also open at 34th Street — Penn Station, Flushing-Main Street, and St. George on the Staten Island Railway.
An MTA customer service center in the background at the bustling Sutphin Blvd., Archer Avenue and LIRR station in Jamaica, Queens.Photo by Barbara Russo-Lennon
The more welcoming, well-lit centers coincide with the MTA’s ongoing effort to reconfigure the role and duties of the traditional subway station agent that bring them out of an enclosed booth and into the public to engage with the riders.
Customer service center employees, however, still work primarily behind glass.
Crichlow said the MTA will share more information about the centers “in the months ahead.”