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Apple Pay can now be used at all Manhattan subway stations and buses

Contactless payments will reach the rest of New York City by the end of the year.

Corinne Reichert Senior Editor
Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently writes news, analysis and features for CNET across the topics of electric vehicles, broadband networks, mobile devices, big tech, artificial intelligence, home technology and entertainment. In her spare time, she watches soccer games and F1 races, and goes to Disneyland as often as possible.
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Corinne Reichert
MTA Apple Pay

Contactless payments are now available across Manhattan subway stations.

MTA

You can now use your iPhone or Apple Watch to pay for a ticket to ride in New York, with the contactless payments capability added to all subway stations and on all buses in Manhattan. It will be made available across the rest of New York by the end of 2020, the New York Metro Transportation Authority said Tuesday. 

You can now find OMNY contactless fare payment readers at all 151 subway stations in New York and on the more than 800 buses on the island. Just tap your Apple or Android device against the reader and you're good to enter. 

"We are excited that anyone traveling within Manhattan can now pay their fare for subways and buses using OMNY," said Al Putre of OMNY. "Not even a global pandemic can hold us back."

All 472 New York subway stations are set to have the OMNY system by the end of the year. They've so far been added to Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, with Queens and Brooklyn stations to come next.

The MetroCard will continue to coexist with OMNY until 2023, although cash purchases will remain available. According to the MTA, use of OMNY has risen by 95% over the last six months.

The announcement of Apple Pay being used on New York transit coincides with the Apple Event where the tech giant unveiled an Apple Watch Series 6Apple Watch SE, a redesigned iPad Air debuting the A14 Bionic chip and a new iPad (8th gen).