Despite Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, OMNY Project Remains On Schedule For Completion By End Of Year

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced today that the installation of the OMNY new fare payment system remains on schedule to be completed by the end of the year at all subway stations and on all MTA-operated buses. The news, announced at a Queensboro Plaza event earlier today, comes despite a more than six-week work stoppage due to COVID-19-related mandates that non-essential projects in subway stations be temporarily put on hold. Additionally, officials announced today subway and bus installations are being accelerated beyond the original schedule, with all Manhattan SBS buses being activated with OMNY next month and nine additional subway stations activated today, ahead of schedule. More than half of all subway stations are now equipped with OMNY, with 2,480 OMNY readers systemwide. The timeline for installation of OMNY hardware for all-door boarding has also been expedited, with all buses set to be equipped with OMNY readers by the end of the year as well. “Not even a pandemic will prevent us from completing this project on time and on budget,” said OMNY Program Executive Al Putre. “I work with the greatest team I’ve ever been a part of in more than three decades of service at the MTA and I’m confident we’ll reach our goals despite the historic pandemic that forced us to shut down work for 43 days beginning in March. We’ve spent that time strategizing about how we can still get this done in a post-COVID-19 work environment, and have accelerated many aspects of the schedule. Our recently redeployed crews, using revised work protocols with requisite PPE, have been fantastic thus far.” Today’s activation of OMNY readers at the Queensboro Plaza and Hunters Point Av stations in Queens marks the completion of the line and surpasses the halfway point in the MTA’s effort to activate OMNY at all 472 subway stations in the system. OMNY installation work began just over a year ago when the MTA launched the historic new contactless payment system at 16 stations in a public pilot that lasted approximately six months. Work ramped up in November, with hundreds more stations becoming OMNY equipped in the last six months. \\

–via Press Release

Record Ridership on MTA Commuter Railroads

Governor Kathy Hochul announced record ridership on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority commuter railroads, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. The LIRR carried 260,745 riders on Tuesday, May 14, the highest ridership for a single weekday since the pandemic. The ridership record coincided with a Grand Central Madison record – 41 percent of riders traveled to Grand Central Madison on Tuesday, the highest split with Penn Station since the terminal opened for full service last February.