Over half a year after the MTA switched to its OMNY tap-and-pay system, 98% of transit riders in New York City have adopted it. But who, if anyone, still uses the agency’s prior payment method: the MetroCard?
The MTA ended sales of the MetroCard, which had been in use for three decades, as soon as the calendar flipped to 2026. The agency framed the move as bidding farewell to the iconic yellow-and-blue plastic card and as marking the system’s full transition to OMNY after years of introducing straphangers to tap-and-ride.
The MTA, however, continues to accept MetroCard payments in the subway and on its buses to this day.
Riders who are still using the fare cards are spending down leftover balances on those that have yet to reach their expiration dates, said Brian Fritsch, associate director of the rider advocacy group the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.
“I think the people that have been using them still have surplus value, accumulated in various cards for one reason or another, or have a stack of single-use cards,” Fritsch said. “I think we’re talking about fairly odd use cases at this point.”
The MTA also still takes coin payments on buses, which agency spokesperson Michael Cortez said accounts for many non-OMNY trips at this point.
Cortez said the MTA’s Government and Community Relations team has fanned out to various places where seniors — the primary group still using coins to pay for bus trips — gather to show them the OMNY ropes and answer any questions they have about the system. Those include senior centers, houses of worship, and hospitals.
On Wednesday, March 19, 2025, MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber announced the final day for MetroCard sales will be Dec. 31, 2025, at a Crain’s Power Breakfast.Marc A. Hermann/MTA
According to Cortez, it is unclear exactly when the MTA will stop accepting payments other than OMNY, though officials said last year that the agency would stop accepting coin payments on buses in 2026.
Not only does the MTA no longer sell MetroCards, but it also removed all of the vending machines where riders could purchase and refill them by the end of last year, according to Cortez. It has also been removing the slots on fare gates for swiping MetroCards.
Nonetheless, those outlier cases Fritsch mentioned still exist.
Sonia Rosario, a 73-year-old resident of the Bronx’s Marble Hill area, told amNewYork that she still carries a senior citizen discount MetroCard with money on it, which has yet to expire, in her pocket.
But Rosario — who is on oxygen due to having Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) — said that because she qualified for the MTA’s paratransit program Access-a-Ride, she has not used the card recently. She said she has tried to get the remaining balance back from the MTA to no avail.
“What happens is I have money on it, and I can’t get it back,” Rosario said. “I just have the money on the card, and I can’t do anything about it. So I can’t even let my son use it because it’s a senior citizen card.”
Rosario said she would use the card if she could because she has struggled with OMNY and loves taking public transit, particularly the subway. Before getting Access-a-Ride, Rosario said she would take the Bx7 bus to 207th Street in Inwood to catch the A train, because her 225th Street station is high above street level and does not have an elevator.
“I love taking the train here, there, and everywhere,” she said. “If I can get somewhere, you know I’ll jump on it.”
amNewYork also observed a rider named Genna swipe a classic yellow MetroCard at the 4 Av-9 St F, G, and R station in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. She said she got her card through participating in the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program this year.
Mark Zustovich, a spokesperson for the city Department of Youth and Community Development, which runs the program, told amNewYork in an email that they are transitioning to OMNY cards this year and have already distributed them to many participants. But he said they still have an existing supply of MetroCards that they also distributed.
Fritsch said that the last large block of riders he knew of who were still using MetroCards were JFK Airport employees receiving discounts on the AirTrain. He said the delay arose from a lag that prevented the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from making the employee bulk discount available through OMNY right away.
Port Authority spokesperson Seth Stein, in a statement to amNewYork, said that while OMNY readers were installed on the AirTrain in 2023, bulk trip discounts for airport workers were not available via tap-and-pay until last month.
“OMNY readers have been in use for AirTrain JFK since 2023, and bulk trip discount products were made available on OMNY on June 11th of this year,” Stein said. “To support airport employees between the discontinuation of the MetroCard in January and activation of the bulk trip discount products on OMNY, we ensured MetroCards remained available for airport employees. MetroCards will continue to be accepted on AirTrain JFK as the MTA completes the transition to tap and ride.”