The MetroCard Dies at Midnight and New York Will Never Be Quite the Same
Right then. Midnight tonight. Thats when the Metropolitan Transit Authority stops selling MetroCards and thirty two years of New York history quietly shuffles off into the archives.
Bit dramatic? Perhaps. But Ive lived here long enough to know that New Yorkers get weirdly attached to the things that make their commutes miserable. The MetroCard was always temperamental. Finicky magnetic strip. That infuriating PLEASE SWIPE AGAIN message. And yet.
The replacement is OMNY. Tap and go. Use your phone or your watch or a contactless card or buy a dedicated OMNY card for a dollar. Over 90% of riders have already switched apparently. The transition has been remarkably painless by MTA standards which means it only occasionally catches fire metaphorically.
ABC says the MTA saves roughly 20 million annually by killing the MetroCard. No more production. No more repairing those vending machines that always seemed broken in the station you needed. No more cash handling. Clean efficient modern.
The new system caps your fare after 12 rides in seven days. Basically free unlimited travel once youve paid 35 quid. Sorry. 35 dollars. Been here years and I still slip into pounds sometimes when talking money.
Thomas McKean is an artist in the East Village whos spent nearly 25 years making collages from clipped MetroCards. Has thousands of them in his flat. Apartment. Whatever. “I stopped believing them about the end of the MetroCard,” he told reporters. “I was living in a fools paradise and then it kind of dawned on me that theyre serious this time.”
Theres a collector named Lev Radin with at least one copy of every branded MetroCard ever sold. Stores them in plastic sheets inside albums. The commemorative editions marked everything from the 1994 Stanley Cup to some mattress company nobody remembers. Artifacts of a city that moves too fast to notice its own history usually.
Before MetroCards there were tokens. Little brass coins with a hollowed out Y between N and C spelling NYC. Before my time but I understand people got quite attached to those too.
The Transit Museum in Brooklyn has an exhibit called FAREwell MetroCard running through spring. Jodi Shapiro who curates it says “The token, the subway bullet and the MetroCard are these things that when you see them, you immediately think of New York.”
Fair point that.
Some riders arent thrilled. Ronald Minor is 70 and says the OMNY machines are harder for older people. “Dont push us aside and make it like we dont count.” Valid concern honestly. The march of progress tends to leave certain people behind and pretend it didnt.
Critics have raised concerns about data and surveillance too. When you swipe a MetroCard the MTA knows a card was used. When you tap your phone they know rather more. The contactless revolution has tradeoffs nobody likes discussing.
Existing MetroCards still work into 2026 if youve got remaining balance. You can transfer it to an OMNY card at customer service centers or those mobile van things that show up at senior centres. Centers.
The MetroCard joins tokens and paper transfers and knowing where the good buskers play as things New Yorkers used to know about. The city remakes itself constantly. Thats the appeal supposedly.
Still. End of an era and all that.
