An MTA spokesperson told Engadget that more stations and buses will get overhauled toward the end of 2019. At launch, OMNY is only working at 16 subway stations on the 4, 5 and 6 lines between Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center (Brooklyn) and Grand Central-42nd Street (Manhattan), plus all buses on Staten Island. The other downside at the moment, of course, is that you can't use this at every subway station or on every bus line.

Unfortunately, right now the OMNY system only works for single-fare rides, but the MTA says that by the end of 2020 all types of fares will be supported, including weekly and monthly passes. Not only because it feels futuristic, but because it means I don't have to go to a vending machine to refill my card or worry about it getting lost or stolen. The fact that I didn't have to swipe my old MetroCard to try to catch a train was quite satisfying. Once I arrived at the subway station, I just placed my iPhone next to the OMNY reader on the turnstile and then the screen displayed a message that says 'GO.' I didn't have to open an app or unlock my phone to get through, and the same goes for the Apple Watch and Android phone with Google Pay that I tested. The entire process took less than a minute. Then, after a quick Face ID authentication, I was ready to go. I already have a couple cards saved on my iPhone for use with Apple Pay, so all I had to do was choose one of them. After you tap on that, you need to select a credit or debit card, which will be used as default payment for your public transit rides. When you go to 'Wallet & Apple Pay' settings on your iPhone, you'll now see an option called Express Transit Card. Thankfully, there's a subway station near our office that has the tap-to-pay turnstiles.īefore I get into that, though, let's first talk about the setup process for Express Transit, as the Apple Pay feature is called. Still, I wanted to get the full experience beyond a quick demo from Apple. The one close to my apartment isn't one of them. But, even though the MTA is now supporting contactless payments services such as Apple Pay, only a handful of stations and buses have so far been upgraded to the new One Metro New York ( OMNY) system.

In an ideal world, I would've been able to use my iPhone to get through the turnstile at my nearby subway station. This morning, as I've done regularly since moving to New York City years ago, I left my Brooklyn apartment to head to Engadget headquarters in Manhattan.

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