{"id":295517,"date":"2025-10-11T20:21:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T20:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/295517\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T20:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T20:21:17","slug":"6-changes-for-nyc-commuters-in-2026-mta-price-increases-metrocard-phase-out-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/295517\/","title":{"rendered":"6 changes for NYC commuters in 2026: MTA price increases, MetroCard phase-out and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Staten Island, N.Y. \u2014 The Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently voted to approve a fare and toll increase<\/a> set to begin in 2026. The transit agency will also phase out MetroCards and permanently move to the OMNY payment system next year.<\/p>\n

Below are six takeaways about the changes riders can expect in 2026.<\/p>\n

Fare hikes approved<\/p>\n

The MTA board unanimously approved a plan to increase fares, with the changes set to take effect in January 2026. The base fare for subways and local buses will rise from $2.90 to $3.<\/p>\n

Bridge tolls increase<\/p>\n

Tolls on major crossings, such as the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, will increase by around 7.5% at the beginning of next year as well.<\/p>\n

For E-ZPass users, the Verrazzano toll will increase from $6.94 to $7.46. The Staten Island resident discount will remain in place with the toll increase, and anyone enrolled in the program will see their toll bill increase from $3.90 to $4.19. <\/p>\n

MetroCard to be phased out<\/p>\n

As part of the system\u2019s full transition to OMNY, the MTA will stop selling the MetroCard in January 2026. At a later point that year, the MTA will no longer accept MetroCards, though the agency didn\u2019t provide an exact date when. Around the same time, local buses will also stop accepting coins as a form of fare payment.<\/p>\n

Changes to unlimited ride options<\/p>\n

The traditional pre-paid seven- and 30-day unlimited MetroCard passes will be eliminated as the system moves exclusively to OMNY. They will be replaced by a seven-day fare cap, which allows for free rides for the remainder of a seven-day period after paying for 12 individual rides.<\/p>\n

Express bus users get a fare cap<\/p>\n

The fare-capping system will be expanded to include express bus commuters, allowing them to ride for free after spending $67 within a single seven-day period. The base fare for an express bus trip will also see a slight increase, rising from $7 to $7.25.<\/p>\n

Cost of new OMNY cards will double<\/p>\n

Next year, the price for purchasing a new OMNY card will increase from its current cost of $1 to $2 \u201cby mid-2026,\u201d according to the MTA.<\/p>\n

(A draft of this story was generated using AI. It was reviewed, edited and approved by Advance\/SILive.com staff.)<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staten Island, N.Y. \u2014 The Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently voted to approve a fare and toll increase set…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":295518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-295517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115357397507435275","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}