New York City Plans to Replace Transit MetroCard With Electronic Card Readers That Support Apple Pay - MacRumors
Skip to Content

New York City Plans to Replace Transit MetroCard With Electronic Card Readers That Support Apple Pay

by

New York City is planning to replace its existing MetroCard transit payment system with electronic card readers that will allow New Yorkers to pay their subway and bus fares using Apple Pay, reports The New York Times.

A committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority this morning approved a $573 million contract for a payment system that mirrors the one in use for the London Underground and commuter railroads in London.

metrocard

Image via The New York Times

Starting in late 2018, NFC-based electronic readers will be installed in 500 subway turnstiles and 600 buses, with rollout expanding to all subway stations and buses by late 2020. Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay will work with the new system, as will contactless credit and debit cards that have an embedded NFC chip.

While the new system will replace the MetroCard, New York City will not phase out MetroCards entirely until 2023. Until then, the two systems will co-exist.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tags: New York City, Transit
Related Forum: Apple Music, Apple Pay/Card, iCloud, Fitness+

Popular Stories

American Express Gold Apple Pay Feature

American Express Announces New Apple Pay Feature

Tuesday June 30, 2026 10:27 am PDT by
American Express today announced that you can now redeem Membership Rewards points when checking out with Apple Pay on the web and in apps on the iPhone and iPad. When checking out with Apple Pay on iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 or later, tap on your eligible American Express card (Platinum, Gold, Green, and others) and select the Membership Rewards points option. You can use points to cover all or...
Read Full Article • 15 comments
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

Apple Says iPhone Driver's Licenses Will Expand to These 6 U.S. States

Thursday July 9, 2026 7:29 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Apple Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, and then use it to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. To set up the feature, open the Wallet app on the iPhone and tap on the plus sign in the top-right corner. Next, tap on Driver's License and ID Cards,...
Read Full Article
apple silicon 1 feature

Apple Silicon is Taking an Unexpected Turn

Friday July 10, 2026 7:24 am PDT by
Ever since the Mac switched from Intel processors to Apple silicon starting in 2020, each generation of M-series chips has included higher-end Pro and Max variants. If a recent report proves to be accurate, though, that streak will be coming to an end. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple will be releasing a regular M6 chip, but it has no plans to offer higher-end M6 Pro and M6 Max...
Read Full Article

Top Rated Comments

S
Sheza
114 months ago
Welcome to 2003, New York!
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ted13 Avatar
Ted13
114 months ago
I sure hope they put the emphasis on speed here. When a metrocard is swiped correctly, you barely have to break your stride at all to go through.

If this takes even a couple seconds to register, it's going to slow things down horribly. I mean, aside from your occasional tourist or newbie who hasn't gotten the hang of swiping, or the odd card or turnstile malfunction, people do it very fast.
"occasional tourist" - New York City receives over 60 million foreign and American tourists each year. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_New_York_City

"When a metrocard is swiped correctly, you barely have to break your stride at all to go through." I'd say 50% of the time if you "swipe correctly" - the rest is multiswipes, frustration and/or waiting for the person in front of you to swipe over and over or go through 5 different MetroCards to figure out which one didn't expire.

Apple Pay will be a HUGE improvement in turnstiles over MetroCards
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dontwalkhand Avatar
dontwalkhand
114 months ago
So does this mean that sometime in 2023 you have to have a smartphone to use the subway? If not, would you need to purchase a standalone NFC capable MetroCard of some kind? Wonder how much that'll cost.
Exactly how Chicago, Philly, and London does it. You’d buy a $5 NFC plastic card if you don’t want to use your phone.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tzm41 Avatar
tzm41
114 months ago
Honestly, with the NFC embedded in the phone, Apple should cooperate with major city transit systems to allow owners to add a virtual transit card into wallet, and be able to just use it like a regular NFC card without the need to authenticate your phone using Face ID or Touch ID. Needing to authenticate will inevitably slow things down. And Android users have been able to do this for some systems for a while using non-officially supported NFC card emulators.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
djeeyore25 Avatar
djeeyore25
114 months ago
Meh. Let's just switch to the honor system and have New Yorkers send in money for any rides they use. We're good for it.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dampfnudel Avatar
dampfnudel
114 months ago
Welcome to 2003, New York!
As a native New Yorker, all I say is we're like Apple in a way, we wait until the technology has matured to our liking and maybe our bottom line (sometimes waiting too damn long). With that being said, I definitely won't miss the MetroCard. I did miss tokens for a while, but that probably had more to do with nostalgia for my childhood growing up in the city.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments