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Full Rollout of Apple Pay Support for NYC Subways Delayed Until December

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Apr 12, 2001
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New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been working to bring its OMNY contactless fare payment system to all buses and subway stations throughout the city, but the rollout of the system has been delayed due to the ongoing public health crisis, reports The Wall Street Journal.

apple-pay-nyc-mta-omny-Cleaned-1.jpg

OMNY tap-and-go fare payments with Apple Pay Express Transit support became available at one of New York City's major transportation hubs, Penn Station, back in December 2019, followed by several more stations in early 2020. The rollout was meant to continue on in March and the following months, but installation of digital readers was stopped in late March.

Installation work resumed at the beginning of May, but the completion of OMNY has been delayed by about two months. It was supposed to be finished by October 2020, but now the full system won't be available until the end of December.

While work on OMNY subway support was paused for a couple of months, the bus rollout of the system was accelerated. The MTA now expects to offer contactless payment support on all Manhattan buses by the end of July, and citywide by the end of the year.

At the current time, Staten Island bus stations and about half of the 472 subway stations in New York support Apple Pay through OMNY.

With the OMNY contactless payment system, riders are able to hold an iPhone or Apple Watch near a contactless reader to pay their fare with no authentication necessary, allowing for speedy passage through public transit hubs.

The New York MTA's goal is to bring contactless payment options to all of its subway stations and bus routes. MetroCards, which predate the OMNY system, will continue to work on subway and bus systems until 2023.

Right now, OMNY is limited to full-fare, pay-per-ride usage. Support for 7-day and 30-day fares won't be available until early 2021.

Article Link: Full Rollout of Apple Pay Support for NYC Subways Delayed Until December
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/03/apple-pay-nyc-subway-rollout-delayed-december/
Last edited:
Did they fix the issue with people accidentally getting charged an entry when they walked close to the scanners?
 
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Apple Pay worked for me on the London Underground last summer. America cannot seem to get it's stuff together.
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SAIRUS said:
Did they fix the issue with people accidentally getting charged an entry when they walked close to the scanners?
Click to expand...
AFIK Apple Pay needs Face ID or a Passcode for payment. Plus you need to be very close to the terminal sensor - like 1 inch close or less. Otherswie scammers could just walk beside you and clone your NFC code.
 
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Ive always wondered why America is slow to adapt to contactless payment, as said above this has been standard in London Underground for years, and contactless payment which is essentially Apple Pay is widely available at retailers across Europe. I haven't used chip and pin for a long time.
 
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T-R-S said:
Apple Pay worked for me on the London Underground last summer. America cannot seem to get it's stuff together.
[automerge]1591220348[/automerge]

AFIK Apple Pay needs Face ID or a Passcode for payment. Plus you need to be very close to the terminal sensor - like 1 inch close or less. Otherswie scammers could just walk beside you and clone your NFC code.
Click to expand...

You obviously don't know how Apple Pay Transit works, because you would be incorrect. You don't need the screen to be on nor do you need to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID.
 
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I find it remarkable how certain businesses are using the pandemic as to why they are NOT progressing in certain matters. I can't think of a better time for a company to implement this. Devs can easily WFH. Field teams have less to worry about in terms of crowds, meaning easier accessibility to terminals and turnstiles for updates/upgrades (with the exception of the very recent protests, which I am sure they will blame next)

Rolling this out should be an imperative. This will assist in mitigating the public health crisis in NYC. Less touching of high contact surfaces. Unbelievable this is not a priority.

My company took the this time to get a lot of work done that we would not have been able to in such an expedient way. Goes to show that some companies will use any excuse to be lazy, while other companies can assess a situation and turn it into a positive in order to thrive.
 
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SAIRUS said:
Because updating an entire system to contactless is not that huge of a jump where people see the rewards. Most other countries were able to leap frog because they were behind.
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The US was one of (if not the) last Western country to start using chip and still uses contactless payment far less than many other places. I really wouldn't claim that we're ahead in that regard.

Anyway, a big reason why there are still a bunch of places without either is simply because merchants love having custom POS integrations instead of using whatever software their terminal vendor gives them. It's why a lot of places got the hardware early on and took at least a year or two afterward to be able to enable it in software. If it weren't for that, Chipotle would have been able to support chip and NFC/contactless as soon as they installed PIN pads instead of having to put these in their chip slots literally a week ago:

IMG_20200528_131543 (1).jpg


EDIT: added clarification; I just remembered Chipotle supports Apple Pay in their app.
 
tmiw said:
The US was one of (if not the) last Western country to start using chip and still uses contactless payment far less than many other places. I really wouldn't claim that we're ahead in that regard.

Anyway, a big reason why there are still a bunch of places without either is simply because merchants love having custom POS integrations instead of using whatever software their terminal vendor gives them. It's why a lot of places got the hardware early on and took at least a year or two afterward to be able to enable it in software. If it weren't for that, Chipotle would have been able to support chip and NFC/contactless as soon as they installed PIN pads instead of having to put these in their chip slots literally a week ago:

View attachment 921373

EDIT: added clarification; I just remembered Chipotle supports Apple Pay in their app.
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Yup the VX820 can definitely support contactless. Good thing they also put the keypad privacy thing on LOL. I am in Canada so this is just strange for me to see swiping at all.
Here up north, the ONLY place I have not tapped in the last couple months is Walmart, because they have not enabled for some reason. A couple other big stores that were holding out - Superstore and Home Depot have enabled contactless.
 
Peepo said:
Yup the VX820 can definitely support contactless. Good thing they also put the keypad privacy thing on LOL. I am in Canada so this is just strange for me to see swiping at all.
Here up north, the ONLY place I have not tapped in the last couple months is Walmart, because they have not enabled for some reason. A couple other big stores that were holding out - Superstore and Home Depot have enabled contactless.
Click to expand...

I'm honestly surprised as many places installed customer facing equipment as they have. Considering that the de facto (the networks/government never did impose a standard) way to authenticate is still via signature instead of PIN, I expected places that didn't already do debit to not bother.

Then again, Apple did release Apple Pay in the US at the right time to make that harder to justify (but many, especially in the service industry, still did justify not having customers run their own cards pre-pandemic). I imagine Apple would be rolling out a US specific version of Apple Pay using QR codes about now otherwise.
 
Wonderboyf1 said:
Ive always wondered why America is slow to adapt to contactless payment, as said above this has been standard in London Underground for years, and contactless payment which is essentially Apple Pay is widely available at retailers across Europe. I haven't used chip and pin for a long time.
Click to expand...

We're just now getting used to the chip 🤣
 
WordsmithMR said:
I find it remarkable how certain businesses are using the pandemic as to why they are NOT progressing in certain matters. I can't think of a better time for a company to implement this. Devs can easily WFH. Field teams have less to worry about in terms of crowds, meaning easier accessibility to terminals and turnstiles for updates/upgrades (with the exception of the very recent protests, which I am sure they will blame next)

Rolling this out should be an imperative. This will assist in mitigating the public health crisis in NYC. Less touching of high contact surfaces. Unbelievable this is not a priority.

My company took the this time to get a lot of work done that we would not have been able to in such an expedient way. Goes to show that some companies will use any excuse to be lazy, while other companies can assess a situation and turn it into a positive in order to thrive.
Click to expand...

Could be several reasons. It could be because the construction is considered non-essential. Or it can also be a production issue since factories were shut down in China.
 
While I’m disappointed that there is delay but living in Manhattan I’m at least super happy that all my usual stops do have OMNY.

That said, it’s highly unlikely I ride the subway until December anyway.
 
T-R-S said:
Apple Pay worked for me on the London Underground last summer. America cannot seem to get it's stuff together.
[automerge]1591220348[/automerge]

AFIK Apple Pay needs Face ID or a Passcode for payment. Plus you need to be very close to the terminal sensor - like 1 inch close or less. Otherswie scammers could just walk beside you and clone your NFC code.
Click to expand...
No, that’s not how Apple Pay Transit works. You just walk by. Works even if your battery is dead.
 
Aside from risk to the essential employees that install the upgrades, contactless payment sooner rather than later would improve public health, eliminating the need to touch surfaces that other nasty carbon-based disease carriers (aka people) had touched.
 
samsung pay been working fine for me in chicago and new york. not to mention countless other retailers who yell at me talking about “we don’t have apple pay!” but it goes through and they are confused. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️
 
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Peepo said:
Here up north [in Canada], the ONLY place I have not tapped in the last couple months is Walmart, because they have not enabled for some reason. A couple other big stores that were holding out - Superstore and Home Depot have enabled contactless.
Click to expand...

Walmart and some other large U.S. retailers were attempting to create their own version of Apple Pay so they were doing their best to not implement a competitor. Last I heard I believe the whole thing fell apart for them.
 
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Reactions: compwiz1202
WordsmithMR said:
I find it remarkable how certain businesses are using the pandemic as to why they are NOT progressing in certain matters. I can't think of a better time for a company to implement this. Devs can easily WFH. Field teams have less to worry about in terms of crowds, meaning easier accessibility to terminals and turnstiles for updates/upgrades (with the exception of the very recent protests, which I am sure they will blame next)

Rolling this out should be an imperative. This will assist in mitigating the public health crisis in NYC. Less touching of high contact surfaces. Unbelievable this is not a priority.

My company took the this time to get a lot of work done that we would not have been able to in such an expedient way. Goes to show that some companies will use any excuse to be lazy, while other companies can assess a situation and turn it into a positive in order to thrive.
Click to expand...

i couldn't agree more. i've been on the subway about three times since feb, and they are not using this slow time to make ANY improvements. but once this is over, they'll certainly be suspending service to fix all of the things that went to s-t during covid. there are more homeless people on trains than passengers, and i haven't seen a single cop. but this is the mta, so why are we even surprised?..
 
Daum said:
samsung pay been working fine for me in chicago and new york. not to mention countless other retailers who yell at me talking about “we don’t have apple pay!” but it goes through and they are confused. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️
Click to expand...
That was the most annoying thing when I had Samsung Pay. I just wouldn't use it anymore some places because the cashiers were get hostile about it!
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Breaking Good said:
Walmart and some other large U.S. retailers were attempting to create their own version of Apple Pay so they were doing their best to not implement a competitor. Last I heard I believe the whole thing fell apart for them.
Click to expand...
And WM is a bunch of idiots saying their own payment system is more convenient. NO it's LESS if I have to use everyone's separate apps instead of just using AP everywhere!
 
Daum said:
samsung pay been working fine for me in chicago and new york. not to mention countless other retailers who yell at me talking about “we don’t have apple pay!” but it goes through and they are confused. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️
Click to expand...
But samsung pay won’t get you through a ny subway turnstile without leaving your pocket, like Apple Pay Transit, so what’s your point?
 
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