New York City wants to bring subway ticket to the iPhone

According to Los Angeles, Paris, Washington, Chicago, Portland, as well as various Japanese and Chinese cities, New York City will soon also receive support for local transport tickets in Apple Wallet. The reports 9to5mac Referring to the public transport company MTA that this In her latest annual report mentioned. According to this, the so-called omny card is to be digitized by December 2025. Instead of a physical NFC card, iPhone or Apple Watch then also provide. Google Wallet could also be supported.

So far it has already been done by credit card

New York City is one of the world regions in which Tap to Pay (or Tap to Go) has already been implemented in the local transport system. It is enough to keep an NFC-capable credit card or an iPhone or an Apple Watch with a stored Apple Pay to the reader’s reader. This is also possible with buses. The problem: the billing is confusing because you are still still No list of the journeys carried out can call up. The feature had been deleted by the MTA due to data protection problems.

The new idea is now to bring Omny, as the physical NFC ticket at the MTA is called, into the smartphone and smartwatch wallet. This allows you to charge the ticket directly on the iPhone in the wallet application and then “process”. The wallet app shows the respective check-ins. It is also planned to integrate the Omny card management into the MTA application. At the moment, the use of Omny is rather unsightly: you still cannot buy the card everywhere at the machine and then also have to charge it on a website. After all, invoices for charging processes can then be created there.

Physical card falls away

In the future, all of this should be possible via the wallet or app. This would result in the compulsion to get a physical map. London could also learn from this: there is currently only the possibility to use the NFC-based physical Oyster Card, which also has to be charged via web or app-or alternatively, TAP to PAY is used (which means “Contactless” here). After all, it is possible to track trips by entering the credit card number, secured with your own account.

The MTA now hopes to largely complete the Omny project by the end of the year. However, not all means of transport in society are still equipped for the system. The two Commuter train lines Metro North and Long Island Railroad (Lirr) do not support Omny. Instead, you have to buy your ticket there via your own app that relies on QR codes, which are then checked by the conductor.