The MetroCard is getting closer to taking its last ride. The MTA said it will stop selling the pieces of plastic at the end of 2025, after having been used by subway and bus riders since 1993. But more people are tossing them and using Tap and Go instead. So when will they go away for good? NBC New York’s Andrew Siff reports.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority will stop selling and refilling those formerly-ubiquitous MetroCards by the end of the year in favor of the OMNY system, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber told Crain's New York Business Wednesday.
MetroCards have been around since 1994, but now seem destined to go the way of the subway token, which stopped being used in 2003.
MTA officials previously said they planned to say goodbye to MetroCards in 2027, but now have provided an estimated date when they will stop selling and filling the cards, and that's at the end of 2025.
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WATCH HEREOMNY's popular tap-and-go system has been around since 2019 and the service includes the ability to tap your phone to pay to purchase an OMNY tap card that passengers can buy and reload. Currently, OMNY is used by about 70% of bus and subway riders, the MTA said.
MetroCards have become something of a collector's item, with more than 400 special editions issued by the MTA.
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SIGN UP Commuters will still be able to use their existing MetroCards with whatever funds they have on them for a minimum of six months after the cards stop being sold, Lieber said. The earliest the MTA system would be fully on OMNY would be late June 2026, but a final date has not been announced.
The MTA said that those still with MetroCards with value on them can trade the cards in for an OMNY card, or add the value to a digital OMNY account.
